


Child of Time

by everythingmurky



Series: Time demi-Lord [1]
Category: Broadchurch, Doctor Who
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Father-Son Relationship, Fix-It, Flashbacks, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Mother-Son Relationship, Past Relationship(s), Pre-Relationship, Timey-Wimey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-19
Updated: 2017-03-18
Packaged: 2018-09-18 13:06:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 47
Words: 162,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9386582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everythingmurky/pseuds/everythingmurky
Summary: Alec Hardy is about to leave Broadchurch when an odd blue box falls in the path of his cab. Two strangers come out that will challenge not only what he knows about the universe but about himself. And, just his luck, Ellie Miller is around to witness that revelation.And then it just gets more complicated from there.





	1. Time to Leave

**Author's Note:**

> Sometimes I think crossovers are inevitable, with actors playing multiple roles the way they do. Or at least, I tend to fall victim to the idea that with two shows/characters being great on their own, joining them together would be even better. I know it's not always true, but I was watching School Reunion today and had a seemingly great and unique idea (at least, I hope it is, but I'm still a bit sleep deprived due to being sick and I write about Hardy with a cat, plus I had some out there Doctor Who fics years ago.)
> 
> Anyway, it's my hope that this idea is good and I can do it justice.

* * *

_“Are you certain this is the best way?” the woman asked, stepping away from the door. The night air had a chill, and she shivered, cradling the bundle in her arms. Now it was quiet, though in time it would awaken and alert everyone to its presence. It had a set of lungs on it, though she feared they might be as weakened as its heart._

_“It is the only way,” her companion said, turning to look at her. His eyes held limitless pity, but it was no comfort, not now. Not here. Not with what they were about to do. “Losing the hybrid to time will protect it.”_

_“It is still a child. A defenseless infant.”_

_“And let them all believe that is all it is because that is the only way it will survive. If anyone were to know of its existence, it would be hunted. Exploited in ways we cannot begin to imagine,” he said, shaking his head. “This has to be done.”_

_“It's wrong,” she insisted, looking down at the baby in her arms. “It'll be all alone. Who is going to protect it? Time won't do that. Time can't keep them from hurting it if they realize it's different.”_

_He stopped, frowning. “Nothing can draw attention to it.”_

_“That doesn't mean someone can't watch over it.”_

_He shook his head. “We agreed. Not even we were to know where in time we left the hybrid. That was the only way.”_

_“Please.”_

_Hands in his pockets, he nodded. “How close are we to Croydon?”_

* * *

Joe was gone.

Ellie had stood with Tom until the car was well out of sight, trying to tell herself she was relieved. She wanted to be—he was gone, forced out of the town he'd betrayed—but she had a feeling she'd always worry despite her threats. She would live in fear of Joe coming after the boys. Or her. Or both.

She tried not to shudder, thinking of that, of his hands on her, of his words of love. She didn't know how he could have said that to her, how he could have claimed it at all. He wasn't capable of love, not real love. Whatever he'd felt for Danny wasn't love. It was sickness.

“You want us to take Tom?” Lucy asked. Ellie should get Fred from the childminder. She hadn't let him be here for this, even though Tom had wanted—needed—to be there.

“That's up to Tom,” Ellie said, giving her son a bright smile. “Sandbrook's closed. I won't be helping that grumpy Scot again. So, you want to go with your aunt or come home with me?”

“Not sure,” Tom admitted. “Gonna walk a bit. Clear my head.”

She nodded. Olly put a hand on her arm, distracting her. She braced herself, hoping he wasn't about to ask her for a bloody interview. She'd hurt him, and she wouldn't be sorry.

“Speaking of grumpy Scots,” Olly began, pulling out a paper, “Maggie dug this up at the office.”

Ellie took the page from his hand, looking over the article. She remembered Hardy saying he'd been here before, that he'd camped on the cliffs with his family, but it was still hard to believe even as she saw those same cliffs behind him in the picture.

Assuming that was him. He was much smaller back then, and even a bit like Danny. She hoped that Olly hadn't shown this picture to Beth.

“This is a joke,” Ellie said. “'Preciate the effort at cheering me up, Oliver, but—”

“It's not a joke. I copied it from the archives,” Olly insisted. “I know it's hard to believe he was ever Tom's age or that he can smile, but it's him.”

“Must look like his dad,” Ellie observed, since she could see no resemblance between the boy he'd been or the man he was now to the woman standing beside the boy in the picture, arm around him. The caption said she was his mother, and she looked very proud of him.

“Don't remember ever hearing about fossils along the cliffs,” Olly said, shaking his head. “Can't believe DI Hardy, of all people, managed to find some.”

“Budding copper,” Ellie said. She gave the picture another glance. “His mother seems familiar somehow. What made you look for this, anyway? I'm sure you and Maggie don't go digging through the archives for fun.”

“It's Karen's fault,” Olly said, and Ellie frowned at him. “She was looking for everything on Hardy she could find, and when she looked at our records, there was a note about a photo caption for the _Echo._ I figured it was too old to matter until that night you and Mum got pissed together and somehow ended up talking about how Hardy had been here before.”

“We did?”

Olly nodded. “You came to see Tom. He refused. You ended up drinking too much. I wasn't there for most of it, just the tail end when that came up, and I don't know why it did.”

“And you dug it up to use against him?”

Olly shrugged. “I don't know what I thought it would do, finding it.”

Ellie decided that she didn't actually want to know. She was still angry with him, since he'd been the idiot who slept with that lawyer of Joe's and gave them that last bit of ammunition, the one that had probably tipped things over the edge. She'd framed Joe to get Hardy, right?

She couldn't believe that accusation, but she thought the jury had.

“Congratulations, by the way,” Olly said. She frowned. “I heard you closed the Sandbrook case.”

“Oh, shut it. You're not getting a story out of me.”

* * *

From the way Miller was eying his bags, she hadn't thought he'd be leaving. He didn't know why she'd thought he would stay. He hadn't actually held onto that bloody awful teaching job, and this shack was hardly fit to spend his forced retirement in. Sandbrook was closed. Claire, Lee, and Ricky were all in custody. He knew better than to assume that there would be pleas—they'd thought that with Joe, and that had been a mistake—but he didn't need to be here for that.

He had to go.

“I couldn't have done this without you.”

“No, you couldn't,” she agreed with a smirk. “And you didn't.”

He rolled his eyes, shaking his head at her impertinence. He might have gotten there on his own. Eventually. Then again, he might have died without ever knowing the truth of Lisa and Pippa's deaths.

“Where will you go?”

That answer was simple. No other choice to be made when he thought about it. “Need to be near my daughter.”

“Quite right,” Miller said, sounding a bit choked up then, almost like she didn't want him to do it. Even if he wanted to stay, if someone wanted him to, he couldn't.

_“It's an inherited condition.”_

_Hardy looked at his doctor, drawing in a labored breath. That made no bloody sense at all. His father had never had any heart problems. It was his liver that was bad, and that was his own doing, now wasn't it? He knew it was. And his mother..._

_She was fit. More fit than he would have thought after all this time._

_“What is the point of telling me that?” Hardy asked, refusing to take the bait. He had suspected that he wasn't that man's son for years now, though he'd never wanted to voice that suspicion to her. Maybe it was soppy, but he hadn't figured on breaking her heart, not even when his own had been shattered._

_“You have a daughter, don't you?”_

_Hardy winced. He should have thought of that. He'd seen no sign of any illness like his in his daughter, not even when she'd come early and been in that bloody incubator for weeks. The doctors said she was just too small, and they'd done tests then. Hadn't caught a damned thing._

_Then again, he hadn't shown signs of this inherited condition until he was past his prime._

_“If your daughter has the same condition, we may be able to spare her a lot of pain and fear if we deal with it now,” the doctor said, and Hardy snorted. “Or you can ignore it and risk her having an attack like yours without any warning. She could die.”_

Miller held out a hand for him to shake. “Good luck, then.”

He stared at her hand.

“I'm not hugging you,” she said, and he grimaced. Of course not. Being nice to her wasn't how it worked, either. She'd told him that already. He gave her a weak thing that almost passed for a smile and then took her hand, shaking it.

She let go, moving toward the door.

“What about Joe?”

She was still teary eyed when she looked back at him. “That's been dealt with.”

He frowned, not sure what to make of that, but he didn't stop her from leaving.

* * *

The taxi was late.

Hardy's mood was foul. He'd been hoping to meet Daisy for dinner, but it'll be too late by the time he got there. She'd have eaten, and Tess would probably make a bullshit excuse about it being too late on a school night even if their daughter was fifteen now.

“Where to then, sir?”

Hardy almost told him to go to hell, but there was a part of him that figured Broadchurch was hell. He should take his chance to leave and go, not stay in this place. He'd come here to hide Claire, and it had worked. He hadn't liked how long it took or how it almost killed him, but his mother had been right about him being in the right place at the right time.

Miller would never have suspected her husband. That had fallen to Hardy, and while he knew it was difficult for everyone, he'd found Danny Latimer's killer. That mattered.

He wasn't pleased the bastard got off, but he hadn't said he was done with that, either.

“Sandbrook,” he said, shutting the car door behind him. Most of the time, he sat up front, but he was not in the mood for chatter, and he didn't want the driver trying to be friendly.

He just wanted to get to his daughter.

He shouldn't. He had a feeling he was about to ruin her life, but he had to, had to make sure she got the full battery of tests he'd hated so bloody much because he was not having her die on him. Not now. Not ever. He went first. He had to go first. He would not accept anything else.

He settled back against the cab seat, figuring on closing his eyes and getting a bit of sleep along the way. Closing Sandbrook left him too keyed up to get any rest, and his chest was aching where they'd put in the pacemaker.

He heard the shift of the engine as they merged onto the road out of town, and he sighed, trying to get comfortable. He had just settled when the car swerved, veering right off the side of the road. He swore, holding onto the door as the vehicle skidded to a stop. His heart thumped against his chest, and he knew the pacemaker was about to go off.

“What the hell do you think you're doing?” Hardy demanded, but the driver, slumped over the steering wheel, didn't respond. Blood dripped off his forehead. He must have hit the door or something.

He groaned, forcing himself to move forward and check the man's pulse.

“Oh, my god,” a Londoner said, leaning into the broken window. “Are you all right?”

“Of course I'm not bloody all right,” Hardy muttered. “Some blue box appears out of nowhere, car goes off the blooming road, almost die, he's probably dead, stupid wanker should never have been allowed to have a license.”

“I was talking to him, but—Doctor!”

Hardy grunted. He supposed the driver needed one, but it was a little daft to be calling for one on the side of the road. He pushed the door open, stumbling out of the car. He leaned against it, trying to calm his heart down so that the pacemaker wouldn't have to shock him.

“Now, Rose,” another man said. “I know it wasn't my best landing—she's never put herself in the middle of traffic before, lucky this was a slow day—but you can't go—bloody hell.”

Hardy looked over and frowned. Impossible. That was him. His face. The blighter was ten years or more younger than him, with sideburns and no scruff, but it was him. He didn't remember hitting his head, but he must have. He couldn't be seeing that.

“Who the hell are you?”


	2. Time for Introductions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hardy, the Doctor, and Rose try and sort out how they came to meet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually was tempted to make a few notes to myself (like, don't watch Doomsday and never lend DVD sets to your family since now you have to get a new copy of series one) here, though I suppose the biggest note must be: don't mess this story up. Which I'm trying not to do, but I admit to a lot of insecurity on that end which is not helped by me being sick and very rusty at Doctor Who fic and new to Broadchurch.
> 
> Still, I like my little idea, even if it may take a bit to reveal it. And I will probably add tags as I go along, too.

* * *

_“Are you sure this is what you want?” He asked, pulling back the hand that had held out the offering. Fingers closed over the palm, covering over it. The weight was nothing, such an insignificant amount, but that small thing could do so much damage. The power it held was dangerous, and he couldn't help but think it had to be the wrong choice._

_“We've discussed this. It has to be done.”_

_“I know the hybrid has to be kept safe. It's too valuable. It is—”_

_“It's everything,” the other man said, voice quiet. The pain was there, raw and real, and his friend ached himself to hear it. He was not sure what to do, since nothing could stop that feeling._

_Except, of course, what he held in his hand._

_“What happens once we do this? If no one knows—”_

_“Then it will be as it should be.”_

* * *

Rose slammed the door shut, leaning against it and breathing hard. She looked over at the Doctor, who was also panting, but when their eyes met, they both grinned. Now they were struggling to breathe because they couldn't stop laughing. She slid down to the floor, resting her head against the familiar walls of the TARDIS.

“Think that'll ever get old?”

“What, running for our lives?” The Doctor asked, trying to be serious for a moment before his lips curved up into another smile. “Never.”

She grinned back at him, leaning her head against his shoulder. She never, ever wanted to be separated from him. This life was more than anyone could dream of, and even though it was as dangerous and scary as it was wonderful at times, she still loved it.

Something pounded on the doors, and the Doctor winced. “Right. Suppose it might help if we actually _left_ the planet.”

“Might do, yeah,” Rose said, and he gave her a bit of a look before bounding over to the control console. She just shook her head. Sometimes he was like a big kid, as different and old and brilliant as he was. Still, she didn't think she'd trade his company for anyone's. “Where're we headed now?”

“Hmm,” the Doctor said, putting a hand under his chin and tapping his face with his finger. “Seems to me that all that running might just have given you a bit of an appetite.”

“An appetite? You trying to fatten me up now?” Rose asked, throwing some mock suspicion into her voice. “Who are you and what have you done with the Doctor? You're one of them, aren't you? Where's the real Doctor?”

“Oi, I'll have you know I'm very real,” he said, feigning hurt. “Do I look like a human eating cephalopod to you?”

She studied him carefully, crossing over to his side. She lifted up his hand, making a show of inspecting him, though it couldn't last. She couldn't keep her face straight, and she ended up laughing, almost falling against him.

He smiled back at her. “Chips?”

“Chips,” he agreed, pushing a button on the console before yanking on the handle. The TARDIS whirred to life, vortex whirling about as it hurled itself through space and time. The ride started to get bumpy, and he rushed over to the other side of the ship as it sparked. He winced, running a hand over the console as the ship shuddered. “Easy now, old girl.”

“Doctor?”

“Something's wrong,” he admitted, frowning as another part of the console sparked. “Come on. This is routine. Just a quick jaunt back to London. Our old stomping ground. Home to Rose and Jackie. Nothing to worry about. Not to fear.”

The TARDIS bucked like it did when he was regenerating, almost out of control, and Rose had the unpleasant feeling they weren't going to end up anywhere near London. She'd seen this before, too many times.

The TARDIS stopped with a final shudder, flinging Rose to the floor. She groaned, picking herself up and forcing her way toward the door. She stumbled out, almost getting sideswiped by a car speeding along the road. Another car screeched past, careening off the road.

She backed away from the traffic, running toward the crashed vehicle. She ran up to the door, stopping next to the window and the driver slumped over the wheel. “Oh, my god. Are you all right?”

“Of course I'm not bloody all right,” a disgruntled voice came from the back seat. “Some blue box appears out of nowhere, car goes off the blooming road, almost die, he's probably dead, stupid wanker should never have been allowed to have a license.”

“I was talking to him,” Rose said, turning to look at the man who'd spoken. “But—Doctor!”

She turned back, needing to get his attention, now. She must have hit her head when she fell in the TARDIS, because that guy looked exactly like the Doctor. Older, scruffier, but the same.

“Now, Rose,” the Doctor said, jogging up to her. “I know it wasn't my best landing—she's never put herself in the middle of traffic before, lucky this was a slow day—but you can't go—bloody hell.”

So the Doctor saw it, too. He saw that man standing there, looking like him only not him. He had a suit and a tie, even a coat.

“Who the hell are you?”

* * *

“Who am I? Who are you?” The Doctor asked, frowning as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing. Oh, it was vaguely possible that he had somehow been influenced by a template during his regeneration, but he didn't remember ever seeing this man before now. He'd been on the gamestation when the regeneration began, and he didn't see how he could have picked up on this fellow.

“Detective Inspector Alec Hardy,” the other man answered, his accent thick. “What the hell do you think you're playing at, dumping that thing in the road and endangering lives?”

The Doctor looked back at the TARDIS. Honestly, he didn't know how his ship had ended up in the middle of a motorway. She usually found her way much better than that, but something had gone wrong on that last trip, and he still didn't know what it was.

“That was an accident,” the Doctor said. “She's not usually one to put down in a motorway, the TARDIS isn't. And yet...”

“His car came up after the TARDIS was down,” Rose said. “Meaning we were right in his path. Meaning, the TARDIS wanted us to meet him.”

“Yes, Rose, excellent,” the Doctor said, pleased by her understanding. She smiled at him, and he smiled back before he looked over at Hardy. “Question is... why?”

“So I can arrest you,” Hardy said, and the Doctor frowned. He didn't doubt that the other man meant it—that growl was very sincere—but really, an arrest? He couldn't be responsible for where a sentient timeship decided to park herself. She did as she pleased. She put them where they were needed, and he knew he could trust her to do that. Always. They were needed here, now, and he was still trying to determine why.

“Arrest? That's a bit harsh,” the Doctor said. “It was a simple misunderstanding, easily fixed.”

“Misunderstanding?” Hardy demanded, gesturing to the car. “That's a misunderstanding, is it? That idiot could be dead. You could have dozens dead thanks to your prank, but you're going stand there and claim it's a misunderstanding?”

“Bit loud,” the Doctor said, frowning. “Do you always yell like that? Wonder you haven't lost your vocal cords, it is. Though... you're not at all well, are you?”

Hardy continued to glare at him, but his breathing was getting more labored, and he put a hand to chest, wincing. Pain spread over his face, and Rose rushed to his side.

“Get off,” Hardy said, trying to push her away. “Don't touch me.”

“I'm trying to help,” she said, getting defensive. “Stubborn git.”

Hardy glared at her. The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver, about to do an examination when a horn blared behind them as another vehicle bypassed the TARDIS.

“We should move,” the Doctor said, eying Hardy. The other man wasn't likely to come with them, even less likely to believe the ship was bigger on the inside. Still, given the uncanny resemblance, the Doctor wanted to know more about Hardy and why the TARDIS had brought them here.

“Suppose you'll need help pushing it out of the road,” Hardy muttered, and Rose started to object, but the Doctor shook his head. No, this was good. They could use this. He was going to willingly move toward the TARDIS which was really all the Doctor needed.

He followed Hardy back to the door, motioning for Rose to stand back a bit. Hardy put his hands on the side of the box. “Well? You just going to stand there?”

“No,” the Doctor said, stepping forward to open the door and shove Hardy inside.

* * *

Hardy landed hard on his hands and knees, but where his face should have been smack up against the back of the box, there was open space before him. Open space and a metal ramp, surrounded by odd lighting that made him think he was sick all over again. Green blue and yellow, and he thought he was nauseous. He groaned, pulling himself up to the railing, leaning against it and closing his eyes.

“Did I die this time?” Hardy heard himself ask, not sure why he was doing that aloud.

“Nope,” the other man said, giving the p an exaggerated pop. “Just got you inside the TARDIS, that's all. She seems quite pleased about it, too.”

Hardy forced his eyes back open. “Who are you?”

“Oh? Didn't I introduce myself?” the other man asked, frowning. The woman came in, shutting the door behind her. “I'm the Doctor. This is Rose.”

She lifted her hand in a wave, giving him a smile. Hardy didn't bother returning it. The names are meaningless. Neither of them seem to understand that it wasn't the names that mattered. He didn't care about names. He wanted to know who they were, and they had told him nothing.

“So you think the TARDIS wanted him aboard?” Rose asked, stepping over Hardy and following this so-called doctor to the middle of the room. “I mean, he does look a bit like you. Older, scruffier, talks almost like you did when you met Queen Victoria.”

Hardy put a hand to his head. “You're both insane. Or I am. Heart must have failed this time.”

“You have a heart problem?”

Hardy grunted. He hadn't meant to mention it, but if he was hallucinating or dead, it didn't bloody matter what he said. Still, he needed to watch himself. Whoever these people were, he didn't trust them. Something was very wrong with them, both of them, and he knew they couldn't be trusted.

“I can have a look if you want,” the Doctor offered. “Might be advisable, actually, since I don't know that I've ever taken someone with a heart problem through time and space.”

Hardy pulled himself up to his feet. “You're not—I'm not listening to another word from you. I'm going to have you both locked up when I get out of here.”

“About that,” the Doctor said, and Hardy looked over at him. “You might want to hold onto something.”

Hardy frowned, but then the tube in the middle of the room started glowing. A strange whirring noise followed it, and he thought about trying for the doors, but his heart was already pounding. The pacemaker would go off in a second, forcing him back to a normal rhythm.

The whirring stopped, and the colors stilled. Hardy stumbled to the ground, his heart still racing. He'd expected the pacemaker to fire, but it hadn't. Was it not working? Or was he overreacting to this, whatever the hell it was?

He stood, doing another breathing exercise to calm himself.

“Now we should be out of the way of traffic,” the doctor said. “So, let's say we have a chat, shall we? I'm very curious—a failing of mine, I know some would say, but if I were to stop being curious, if there was nothing left of the universe to explore and learn about, then what would I be? Wouldn't be a life worth living, now would it?”

“He might have to get a mortgage,” Rose said, and the doctor made a horrified noise. She laughed.

Hardy shook his head, not wanting to let himself be drawn into whatever their insanity was. He dragged himself up and held to the railing to reach the door. He pushed it open and fell again, this time onto sand.

“Bloody hell. It would be another damned beach.”

“Hardy?” 

He didn't want to lift his head. He knew that voice. He didn't want to hear it, he'd left it behind, but there it was, coming from the woman who was both irritant and salvation in one.

“What the hell are you doing here, Hardy?” Miller demanded. “And what is that box?”


	3. Time for Complications

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More confusion happens now that the TARDIS is on the beach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have all these great ideas for beautiful reveals, where the story comes together. Trouble is... they take some building up to get to. I'm working on it, hoping not to rush it, since I know I kind of did with another story. This all has purpose. I just haven't explained it all yet.

* * *

_“This is amazing,” she said, touching a finger to the child's cheek. The smile on her face was wide and beautiful, so full of amazement. “How is it possible?”_

_“That's the thing,” he said, no wonder in his voice, just pain and disappointment. “It shouldn't be.”_

_She turned back to frown at him. “You're not going to say that this is somehow a mistake, are you? That this child, this_ life _should not exist?”_

_“Technically speaking, it shouldn't,” he said, and she almost reached over to hit him. “That doesn't make it any less at risk. And it will be at risk until the day it dies.”_

_She winced, her eyes on the child. Innocence was all over that face, that small, miraculous face, and she could not comprehend anyone wanting to harm it, but the universe was full of the ugly as well as the incredible. The darker places—people—would want this child gone._

_“You won't let that happen.”_

_“No. That is why I came to you.”_

* * *

“Do you mind if I walk back with Mark and Beth?”

Ellie shook her head, though her instinct to protest rose the instant Fred started to whine at his brother. Tom took him by the hand, leading him up off the beach. She held back her own reaction, looking out at the water. She didn't necessarily mind a minute alone—one thing she'd missed as a single parent was breathing room that wasn't paid for. Joe used to be great at running interference with the kids if she needed some time to sort out her day, whether it was work or something else, and she was standing here, where Danny's body was found and where she met Hardy...

It hit her, then, like a storm wave breaking on the rocks, and she almost crumpled with it, the weight of it all. Her life was gone, changed by this damned place. She understood Beth and Mark and their need to reclaim it, to forge good memories here for Chloe and Lizzie and themselves, but how did Ellie do that?

Her husband had killed Danny, and he was still out there. Free. He could—probably would—kill another child.

She shook her head, forcing herself away from the spot when she heard the strangest noise. Sort of a whirring but half-dead, like a creature on its last legs but something more of a machine.

Then she was staring at a blue police box and questioning her sanity.

Had she broken when Danny's killer walked free? Did she dream up that Sandbrook ending and forcing Joe from their lives? Was that it?

The door opened, and then a body fell out. She almost didn't believe it, thinking it a horror film nightmare she must be having, but then it moved. She recognized that jacket.

Worse, that voice.

“Bloody hell. It would be another damned beach.”

“Hardy?”

Ellie couldn't understand how he'd gotten back to Broadchurch or why he was in that box. He looked like he was about to die on her again, and she was not going to have that. He was not making this place back into one of death again.

“What the hell are you doing here, Hardy?” Ellie demanded, kneeling down next to him. “And what is that box?”

Hardy glanced back at it, sitting up and breathing hard. “No clue.”

She shook her head, not sure why she bothered with him, but then another man came bounding out of the door. He wore brown pinstripe, and his white trainers kicked up sand onto Hardy as he jumped over him. A young woman followed after him, though she at least didn't jump over Hardy. She stopped, giving him a worried look.

“Oh, this is brilliant,” pinstripe said, turning around in the sand. “Harbor Cliff Beach, Broadchurch. Dorset. Fabulous scenery. Do you know the history of this area, Rose? Ever been here before?”

“No, Doctor,” she said, and Ellie would have been relieved that Hardy was in a doctor's company if that man was remotely professional.

“Bollocks,” she said, and pinstripe whirled on her. She saw it even more now that he was looking straight at her. Bloody hell, it was like seeing a younger, clean shaven Hardy. He had thicker glasses than Hardy, and the suit was a lot louder and crisper than Hardy's, but he seemed as attached to it as her former boss was to his wrinkled and rumpled ones. “Why do you look like Hardy?”

“He doesn't,” Hardy said, pushing himself up the ground. He stumbled, and the woman caught him. He shoved away from her. “I already told you once—hands off.”

“You're worse than he is. Was.”

“Excuse me?” Pinstripe asked, looking offended. “Think you're a bit confused there—”

“You could be very grumpy when your ears were bigger.”

Ellie grimaced. “I don't care about him having surgery to fix his ears. I want to know what he's doing here. How did that box end up on my beach? How were all of you inside it? How do you know each other? What is going on here?”

“Incessant questions, Miller,” Hardy said, and she shook her head at him. She wasn't doing that with him. She wanted an explanation, not a fight.

“Sorry, sorry,” the younger one said. “I'm the Doctor. This is Rose. We just met the Detective Inspector Hardy over there. Bit grumpy. Doesn't seem to like us much. Mind you, Rose, I think he might be ginger. Seeing him in this light—blimey, he's rude _and_ ginger. Oh, now that is just not fair.”

Ellie grimaced. She wasn't sure she was far from being just as annoyed as Hardy was. “Someone explain to me what is going on here.”

“Oh, now, that's the tricky part,” the Doctor said. “I'm afraid we don't know.”

* * *

“You don't know?” Hardy demanded, frustrated. “You drop that damned box in the middle of a motorway, cause accidents—I don't suppose either of you bothered to call in for that driver? No, of course not. You're too busy abducting police men and—how did we get here? We were on the motorway. Out of town. This—no. It's not possible.”

“It's the TARDIS,” the Doctor said. “Impossible is what she does. What she is, even. She's... The last of her kind, same as me.”

“If you don't start making sense soon, I will have you arrested,” Hardy told him. “I can do it now. Should, since that driver will die if he isn't already dead. You just left him—”

“Alive and not in mortal danger, which is more than I can say for you,” the Doctor said. He pulled something out of his pocket, and to Hardy's absolute surprise, Miller moved in front of him, blocking him. “Oh, come on, now. It's just a screwdriver.”

“Never seen one that looks like that before,” Miller said. “And he may be a knob, but that doesn't mean I'm letting you hurt him.”

“The Doctor's not like that,” the woman said. “Trust me, he's not. He can get a little distracted and go off on tangents, but he's brilliant and caring and he always saves us. And the TARDIS, she had a reason for bringing us here. I don't know what it was, but I know it had to be important because the TARDIS always has a reason. Usually takes a bit of investigating first, which is why he was going for the screwdriver—”

“We're done here,” Hardy told Miller, and she didn't argue, moving with him when he started to walk away. He wouldn't claim that he didn't want to know more about those two, but he wasn't sticking about to get anyone killed, either. “Where are your boys?”

“With Beth and Mark,” Miller answered, and he nodded. She took hold of his arm, stopping him. “Are you about to die on me?”

“Winded,” he said. “Pacemaker went off inside that thing.”

“In that small of space? Shouldn't wonder.”

Hardy shook his head. “It was bigger. On the inside.”

“You're bloody joking.”

Hardy looked her over. Somehow, this seemed fitting. “Fresh eyes. Sanity. Nagging. That's what you bring to all of this, Miller. Now let's go make sure that idiot cab driver didn't die missing that damned box.”

“I'm glad you think so highly of my skills.”

“Told you. Couldn't have solved Sandbrook without you.”

“You didn't,” she said, and he wondered if that was a thing between them now. He almost asked her about Dirty Brian, but the timing was worse than his normally was. “Don't try and change the subject. What was that back there?”

“Don't know.” Hardy paused, looking back at the beach, at the blue box. Something about it bothered him, and not just the memory of being inside it when it could not have possibly been like what he remembered seeing. “None of it... Trust the evidence, trust the facts. That is what I do. What I've learned to do. What I'm good at.”

She nodded. “Don't think you're fit for anything but being a copper, and that's a pity since you're the worst one in Britain.”

Hardy should have made some scathing remark to that. Instead, he smiled.

* * *

“What are you planning on doing?” Rose asked, and the Doctor looked over at her with a frown. “This isn't like most of our stuff, and you know it. We usually plop down and find some kind of alien crisis. Lost alien creating a family by stealing children. Ghosts stealing dead bodies. Nanites. All of that stuff. Not this. Not some grumpy copper who looks like you but has a bad heart.”

“Wish she'd moved,” the Doctor said, still frowning. “Need to get a proper look at him. One scan. Might even be able to help with that bum ticker of his, but if I can't actually look then there's nothing I can do.”

“Well, that woman is not going to let you close to him,” Rose said. “Not sure who she is to him, but she asked questions like this PC that used to hassle Mickey when we first started dating.”

“She's probably police as well,” the Doctor said. “That complicates things.”

“You just go around the police and do as you please,” Rose reminded him, though she felt a bit stupid because she knew that she'd just said this was different. It was. This wasn't an alien, not unless Hardy was, which wasn't impossible. She'd seen plenty of aliens that could fake appearances. Question was, why would anyone who didn't know the Doctor want to look like him?

Or was that part of the act, too?

“Something's wrong here,” the Doctor said. He looked around him, kneeling down next to the sand. “There's a residual here. Something bad happened. Here. Right here. And yet... not here.”

“Doctor?”

He pointed his screwdriver at the sand next to the TARDIS. “Hmm.”

“I don't see anything.”

“No, and I doubt that these people here do, either, lacking the proper equipment for detecting it, but then again, what reason would they have to look for it?”

“For what? Doctor, you're not making any sense,” Rose told him. “Please don't tell me that we have another body stealing alien to deal with. I hate them. They're creepy.”

His eyebrows went up. “Oh, now that would be interesting. You think that explains why he looks like me only older? And what is with that brogue? Lovely sound, if a bit unhealthy, but then we already established that Hardy isn't well. Right. Let's go.”

“Where are we going?”

“The boardwalk.”

She supposed that worked same as any place, though she wanted to know how he planned on getting close enough to Hardy to figure out who that man really was. “You think you'll find what you're looking for there?”

“Yes, I do,” the Doctor told her, holding out his hand. She took it, welcoming the familiar touch. He put his screwdriver away and started walking way from the TARDIS. “Tell me, Rose. When was the last time you had a 99?”


	4. Time for Mothers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy confronts her mother. Miller fusses over Hardy. The Doctor and Rose seek alternate sources of information on that same detective inspector.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have, as will become clear, changed a few points of canon. This fit with my idea, the universe that seemed so perfect. Unique and special and worth creating.
> 
> And I'm now much closer to explaining it and getting to the scenes that I can't stop seeing in my head.

* * *

_“Will you ever see it again? The hybrid, I mean.”_

_“No.”_

_“Why not?”_

_“Only way to keep it safe. Can't let anyone know it exists. By losing the child through time, I can give it a chance to live. Otherwise... all it would ever know was death. Its own—after everyone who cared for it,” he said. “That's not life. That's not... It's not anything, actually.”_

_“Still,” she said, cradling the baby in her arms, “is that enough? Not for it, but for you. All these sacrifices, everything you've done—once again you come away with nothing, and for what? The greater good? Is that what this is?”_

_“Oh, no. This is me being selfish. So very selfish...”_

* * *

Sandbrook was everywhere. Again. Daisy couldn't get away from it. She'd tried, before, when the case first went wrong. Everyone had made a monster of her dad, calling him all sorts of things, blaming him for a child killer walking free. They had teased her horribly, not that she'd ever tell him that. Or her mother. He was too overprotective. Her mother... She just liked to pretend it didn't exist. Her mother was good at that. Her father took it all in, bottled it up, blamed himself, got grumpier and grumpier. Her mother, she just put on that blank face and pretended it wasn't happening at all.

Every single article about Sandbrook, about the case, about her dad's screw up, her mother had acted like it was nothing at all. She kept saying it was fine, they'd be fine, and Daisy knew she was lying because her father left, and that was not fine.

Daisy shook her head, dumping her bag on the bed. She sat down, shaking her head. She was so sick of Sandbrook. She should be glad it was over. Solved. Three people arrested, the trial not going to fall apart this time because the evidence was back.

Except she wasn't glad.

She reached into her bag, pulling out the paper. Her friends had actually thought she'd like it, this whole retrospective issue, one that told the world that her father _wasn't_ the worst cop in Britain.

Trouble was, that made it so she knew who was.

She touched her fingers to the print, tracing over the article from the _Echo._ Broadchurch's paper. An exclusive interview with her father on what happened two years ago.

“Daisy?” her mum called, coming down the hall. She looked up as she poked her head in the doorway. “How was school? And don't say pretty—”

“I know what you did.”

“Excuse me?”

“I know what you did,” Daisy repeated. She faced her mother, arms over her chest. “I know you lost that pendant. And that you cheated on Dad.”

Her mother stilled, looking at her. “Who told you that?”

“I'm not stupid,” she said, picking up the paper. “They didn't put your name, but I don't need it. I know you. I know Dad. And I know what you did.”

Her mother shook her head. “Don't do this. Daisy, it is not—”

“It _is_ what I think. It's exactly what I think. You were having an affair, and because of it, Dad's case fell apart. He took the blame for you, covered up what you did, and you cheated on him—”

“He didn't—”

“Don't,” Daisy said, shaking her head as she rose. “I can't. I can't even look at you. You're my mother, and I want to—I want to scream and shout and hit you or throw up all over the floor. I can't figure out how I feel, but I know I don't want to see you right now. Maybe ever.”

“Daisy—”

She ignored her, forcing her way out of the room and running out of the flat. She didn't know where she was going. Maybe she'd find some of her friends. She could stay with them, only they wouldn't understand. They wouldn't know. She didn't want to tell them.

She looked around the street. Her mother would be out in a minute, and Daisy didn't want to be here when she was.

“Daisy?”

She whirled, not expecting that, of all voices. “Gran? What are you doing here?”

“Came to find your father. I was hoping he at least had the good sense to be with you after having pacemaker surgery,” her gran answered. “Is he here? Please tell me he's here.”

Daisy shook her head. “No. He didn't even come back here for that. Mum went down to see him afterward, stayed a day or so, and then she came back.”

“And he didn't?” Gran shook her head. “Land's sake, what is wrong with that child? Doesn't he understand that he has people who care about him? People who want to know what is happening to him? Oh, no, he just says everything's fine and lets me go off to far flung parts of the country without so much as telling me he's going in for surgery.”

“He didn't tell me, either,” Daisy said, and her grandmother pulled her into her arms, holding onto her. “Gran, why is Dad so... so bloody impossible?”

“It's in the genes, I suppose,” Gran said, pulling back to look at her. She touched Daisy's face with as sad smile. “Now, what's with the tears? Did I do that, going on as I did about my son?”

“No,” Daisy said. “That was—”

“Daisy, come back here. We need to talk,” her mother said, and Daisy looked back at the door, glaring at her. “I can explain—”

“I don't want to hear it,” Daisy said. She turned back to her grandmother. “I think that Dad's still in Broadchurch. Will you take me there?”

Her gran gave her mother a look. They'd never really got on, Daisy knew, and Gran had never forgiven her mum for choosing someone else over her father. Daisy shouldn't abuse that, she shouldn't, but she was still glad when her gran smiled. 

“Absolutely.”

* * *

Ellie walked with Hardy, keeping her eyes on him so that she could see if he faltered or started lagging behind. She wasn't sure if she was going to have to carry him or not. She should drag him back to the hospital, but knowing him, that wouldn't last even if it was what he needed. He wasn't ever going to get that heart properly treated, was he?

She led up to the lot, finding Mark and Beth loading up their car with Lizzie. Fred was trying to escape from Tom, but Beth reached over and caught him. She might have held on longer than was necessary, but Ellie wouldn't complain.

“DI Hardy,” Beth said, looking up from Fred. “We thought you'd gone.”

“So did I,” he grumbled. Ellie gave him another look, concerned again. That thing on the beach. It had just appeared, out of nowhere, and Hardy'd been in it. He was worse for wear, too.

“Um, Beth,” Ellie began. “Something odd happened down there at the beach—”

“Where Danny's body was?” Mark asked, frowning. “Where we just were? Has some sicko gone and done things where my boy—”

“No,” Ellie assured him quickly, not wanting them to think that. She didn't know how to explain that blue box, but she didn't want him thinking it was something else, something twisted. “It's not like that, but I think Hardy needs to see a doctor again—”

“No,” Hardy protested immediately. “I do not.”

“You said the pacemaker went off when you were in there. You are seeing the bloody doctor,” Ellie insisted.

“I'm not. You're not making me. You're not my wife, not my bloody mother—”

“I'd pity either of them, 'cept your mum's gone and I don't know that I think much of Tess,” Ellie said. He gave her a look, not the only one to do so. She shook it off. “Look, he won't go on his own, and someone has to make sure he doesn't ki—he needs that heart of his seen to—”

“We can take the boys,” Beth said. She turned to Tom. “You don't mind, do you? Coming with us for a bit?”

Tom hesitated, and Ellie thought he did mind, but he ended up nodding. “No, that's good. It'll be... fun.”

“Take your boys home, Miller. I'm fine,” Hardy said, though he followed his words with a grimace, turning away from them and making a liar of himself, not that anyone believed him. 

Ellie leaned close to say goodbye to Fred, whispering to Beth. “Are you sure about this? I don't want to just dump the boys on you or—”

“He needs looking after, and he almost listens to you,” Beth said. Ellie frowned, but then they had relied on Hardy through the investigation and he'd been the one to discover it was Joe. She was the one that screwed it up so he got away with it in court. “Go on. The boys'll be fine.”

Ellie nodded, stepping back. “All right, you. You're with me.”

Hardy glared at her, but she took his arm. He was stronger now, with the pacemaker, not as sick as he'd been before it was put in, only still off because of that damned blue box, and she was able to tug him along toward her car.

“Wait,” he said, turning back to the Latimers. “If someone comes around your house... man in a brown suit, looks like me... don't talk to him. Don't trust him. Don't let him anywhere near you.”

Beth paled, reaching for Mark. “Who is he?”

“We don't know,” Ellie said. “But he is suspicious, so please be careful.”

“He looks like you,” Mark repeated. “And you don't know him?”

Hardy shook his head. “Never seen him before. Stay away from him. And the woman with him.”

* * *

“This is good, yeah?” Rose asked, still working on her ice cream. The Doctor had already finished his, not even sure how it had gone so fast, but it was good. He wouldn't mind another, though he figured that could wait. He needed to know who Hardy was and why he looked so much like this regeneration.

“Marvelous,” the Doctor agreed, eying hers and trying to decide if he was willing to take it. A part of him was, no doubt, but then he was supposed to be better than that. He was a Time Lord, after all.

She tilted her head, studying him. “What was it you found on the beach? Something's worrying you. Something... bad.”

He shook his head. “It's not all that. Not like we passed into a vortex or stumbled across an invisible species that feeds on people's emotions. No, no, we—well, we have found a puzzle, and I'm not sure we have all the pieces yet, but something happened here. Something is still echoing through this place, and I need to know what it is.”

“All right, then. Where do we start?” Rose looked back at the beach. “Not with Hardy, he won't tell you anything, and that woman won't, either.”

“I know,” the Doctor said. He needed to get close enough to do some analysis of Hardy, but that was going to have to wait. He had to go around him, get answers from other sources. Shame there was no central directory here. Oh, there was internet, but that wasn't necessarily the sort of thing he needed. Local connection, that was what it was. He had to find a way that tied back to the town itself. “Shame your mother wasn't here. She'd know all the gossip.”

“Yeah, she would. She'd be telling you everything you didn't want to know,” Rose said. Her eyes widened. “Oh, I should call her. I haven't done that in a bit. You mind?”

He did, but that wasn't going to stop Rose, and at least that way Jackie Tyler would have one less reason to be mad at him. He didn't need to keep angering Rose's mother. Jackie was a fearsome woman. Terrifying, even.

He let Rose walk away to make her call, chattering on, and he ducked into the nearest building, finding himself abruptly in a newspaper office.

“DI Hardy?” a woman asked, coming forward from the back. “Oh, no, sorry. You're too young. Much too young. Must have been the light. Terrible in here, isn't it? Of course, there is a resemblance. I'd say it was uncanny—”

“More just a tad odd,” the Doctor corrected, getting a look. He assumed it was the accent. Hardy's was much more impressive. He leaned against the counter. “What do you know about this detective inspector?”

“I might know a fair bit,” she said. “Why would I tell you, though?”

“My rugged good looks and charming smile?” the Doctor asked, getting a laugh out of her.

“Wrong tree,” she told him, and he shrugged, still trying out the smile. He could usually win people over, regardless of their personal choices. “What makes you so curious?”

“Oh, I'm a curious sort, me. Never could keep myself to myself, if you know what I mean. Always have to see and touch and explore,” he leaned forward. “You don't think it's strange, us looking so alike? I mean, from my perspective, it's a bit... confusing. I've never met him, but he looks like a carbon copy, yeah? And how is that?”

“Family?”

“No. Not possible,” the Doctor said. She snorted, not understanding. If she knew he was a Time Lord, she might have some comprehension of how impossible that was. He knew no one in his family had an indiscretion that could have resulted in Hardy's presence. His people would never dream of it. He was the only Time Lord to see humans having value. “'Course I deal in the impossible every day, but still—nope, not possible. So how does that happen, resembling someone so strongly?”

“Coincidence?”

He could tell she doesn't believe him. He wouldn't, but he also knew that his people hadn't somehow created this aberration by indiscriminate or clandestine liaisons. “So... tell me about Hardy? Or... better yet, can I read about him? Is he in your papers?”

“Might be. Don't give access to the archives to just anyone, though,” she said, and he nodded, not sure if it was the reporter in her or something else that made her so suspicious.

He started to reach into his pocket for his psychic paper.

“Doctor?” Rose called, then darted into the room, rushing up to him excitedly. “Can we go visit Mum? She said she'd keep tea for us.”

“Uh...” the Doctor rubbed the back of his neck, looking at the other woman again. “What year is it?”

“Why would you ask that?”

“It's a valid question,” the Doctor said, defensive. “Year?”

“2015.”

Rose winced. “Bit late for tea, then.”

“Just a little,” the Doctor said, since they were almost a decade in the future from when they'd last left Jackie. “Cheer up, Rose. That's what we've got the TARDIS for. Soon as we figure out what is going on with my inferior copy—”

“You mean DI Hardy?”

“You have to admit I'm better looking,” the Doctor said. “Though... the accent. He does have a truly great accent.”

“And he's ginger in the sunlight.”

“Oh, I'd almost forgotten that. That is truly unfair.” He pouted a little at Rose's words, and she giggled, making their host think they were both crazy.

Just an ordinary day for him, really.

* * *

“Oh, for Christ's sake, Miller. Stop your bloody fussing,” Hardy muttered, wishing she'd leave him be. He wanted to get back to that blue box and get a look at it without the man in the suit, and Miller had agreed that was the thing to do, but she'd still not turned the car around. She'd driven all the way to the hospital instead.

Hours of waiting had convinced her that he wasn't dying, since he would have done it before they saw the bloody doctor if he was, and she had relented enough to let him walk out of the hospital. He'd thought that was the end of it, but he should have known better with Miller.

“You said your pacemaker went off.”

“And I'm clearly not dead,” he reminded her. “Now if you're done with that nonsense, you can drop me off at the Trader's.”

“The Trader's?” 

He nodded. “Too late to head to Sandbrook now, not sure I want to with that strange man in town, but since I turned over the keys to the house, I'll need a room for the night.”

“I've got a sofa.”

He frowned. “Miller, since when would me being a guest in your home ever be a good idea?”

“It worked before,” she said, and he shook his head. Unbelievable. She had to be out of her bloody mind. She didn't want that. Just like that dinner she hadn't wanted. “Hardy, something happened on that beach that neither of us can explain. That box appeared from nowhere. You were inside it, and it is supposedly bigger in there. That's not possible.”

“So, what, we're both insane? That what you think?” Hardy asked. “Then let's go back there. Right now. We should look at that thing when he's not about.”

“I can't believe I'm agreeing to this,” she said, turning the car around and going toward the beach. She pulled into the lot and parked in the first empty space. “What do you expect to find?”

“Don't know.” Hardy opened his door and stepped out, shutting the door behind him. He was about start down to the shore when he heard a name on the wind. Not just any name. That name. The one he hated. The one no one should use.

The one that was supposed to be his.

“Alec!”

He turned, squinting into the sun and trying to see the speaker, though he already knew who it was. No mistaking the way she said it, not at all.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded, too aware of Miller getting close to him at the same time as the other woman.

“Fine way to greet your mother,” she said, shaking her head. He knew that tone. She wanted to lecture, but affection was warring with that instinct, and her obvious relief at seeing him had her wrapping her arms around him instead of smacking him. “I cannot believe you went off and had surgery without telling me. You knew where I was. You knew I'd never get there in time if something went wrong. Why did you let me go without saying anything?”

“Didn't want you fussing,” he said, stepping back out of her hold. “Or watching me die.”

She grimaced. “You are too much like your father.”

“Don't say that. Never say that.”

“Wait a minute,” Miller said, coming over to where she almost stood in between them. “She's your mother? I mean, she looks like the woman in that picture that Olly showed me, but you said your mother was dead.”

His mother stared at him, appalled. He shook his head. “I didn't.”

“You said your parents fought until the day she died _and_ 'the last thing she said to me was God puts you in the right place even if you don't know it at the time,'” Miller said. “That's saying she's dead. You bloody wanker. You let me think your family was all gone.”

Hardy ground his teeth for a minute. “Bickered until _he_ died, and that _was_ the last thing she said to me, wasn't it?”

His mother nodded. “He said he hated Broadchurch. I said I hated Aberdeen, but God put us in the right place even if we didn't know it at the time. Today proved that more than once. First Daisy, now you.”

“You saw Daisy today?”

“She's here, Alec. And she knows about her mother.”


	5. Time for Connections

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hardy talks with his daughter. Rose and the Doctor try and understand what happened in Broadchurch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I don't know how to write Daisy, much as I try. I keep feeling like she's not in character with what was shown in season two. And I know I have another character wrong, and I want to say that's because of the way I changed canon, but I doubt it is.

* * *

_“Children are the most precious gift in the universe.”_

_He couldn't help agreeing. Oh, he knew that certain ones were terrible, as he had been, but that didn't mean that they all were. He held back on saying anything about the species who liked to eat them, but he knew there were plenty of civilizations who did everything and anything for their children. Biological imperatives aside, wars had been fought over the need and right to reproduce._

_Of course, there were others who didn't see it that way. They barely paid attention to that need, and their population growth was almost non-existent. Perhaps if it wasn't, then some things would be different. Some wars could have been won._

_And some hybrids wouldn't matter nearly as much as they did._

* * *

“All them papers, they tell you anything?” Rose asked, putting her hand in the Doctor's as they left the newspaper office. She hadn't been able to look at many of them, since he'd zipped through the lot of them, reading them at a speed that she was sure had that woman—Maggie—convinced that he hadn't actually seen a word of it.

“Quite a bit, actually,” the Doctor said. “I know what passed through here and why it still echoes.”

“Oh?”

He nodded, and his lack of enthusiasm worried her. She grimaced. Whatever it was, it wasn't good. She waited, but he didn't answer, dragging her along instead to get more 99s. She didn't know why he needed that again, but she knew he'd tell her. He had to if he wanted her to help, but he would anyway because he had a big gob, and he used it. A lot. He loved to talk.

And lick things.

And that was why he was back to a 99, eagerly going to work on it. She could have watched him all day. She knew that was daft, but he could be like a big kid, and his excitement was infectious. That, and he was... well, him. She could stare at the Doctor all day it seemed sometimes.

“A boy was killed,” the Doctor said after finishing his ice cream. “Eleven years old. The TARDIS put us about right where his body was found.”

Rose winced. “Do we think... was it an alien?”

“No,” the Doctor said. “From what I read, the monster in this case was human. Surprised the world, shook this town down to its foundation. It hasn't recovered. The pain of it still echoes through them all. It's like it fractured this place.”

“Can you feel that because you're a Time Lord?” she asked. “Your mind, that power you have—that is showing you the emotions?”

“Not exactly,” the Doctor said. “I feel almost like something else must be here, something creating these imprints. Can't see a cause of it, though.”

“You're sure it's not the killer?” Rose asked. “Just because he looks human doesn't mean he is, and we have dealt with those types before, right? So maybe the reason we're here is because that guy is really an alien, but no one knows it yet. We have to go and prove that he is. Well, not that we can tell everyone, but we have to find him.”

“Oh, Rose,” the Doctor said, giving her a grin. “You are brilliant.”

“I know,” she said, grinning back at him, though she figured he'd have seen it himself. Maybe he was about to tell her that. He didn't usually hold back moments of brilliance, he liked being the one who saved the world, and he had an ego big as his hair at the very least. “You don't have to treat me like a child, though.”

“I'm not.”

“Letting me figure out the killer might be an alien we have to examine?”

He shook his head. “I didn't do that. I was convinced that the killer wasn't an alien, but you're right. He could be. So we are going to have to find him. Trouble is... he was let out of prison, so it's not just a matter of flashing a bit a psychic paper and getting in for a visit. No, we'll need more than that.”

“Which goes back to us asking the bloke who looks like you—”

“Not him,” the Doctor said. “We ask him, and we may as well get ourselves arrested. Not that we haven't before, but I don't fancy getting arrested by my own face. Something so very wrong about that. Can't have that happened, no. Not at all.”

“The woman?”

“Perhaps,” the Doctor said. “She was married to the killer, after all.”

“What?”

* * *

“You should have told me.”

Hardy grunted. He was glad Daisy hadn't wanted to stick close to her gran for this conversation. He knew if he looked at her, she'd have that same _I told you so_ look on her face that he knew all too well. She wouldn't be one to rub it in, no, not his mother, except that she always chased after the sort of thing that he would gladly have locked Steve Connolly up for, and she'd always give him a look of triumph if she had anything that came close to proof.

“It wasn't something you needed to know, darling.”

“Don't,” Daisy said. “Don't 'darling' me, and don't think you're going to distract me. You lied, Dad. You promised me you wouldn't lie to me, and you did. You let me think you'd screwed up—and they were saying stuff about the affair back then. You know they were.”

He looked away. “You needed your mother.”

“And not my father?”

“I didn't say that.” He glanced back at the beach, not sure if he could see that box from here or not and if he was making it up. “Only you're here, aren't you? You ran from her as soon as you knew what she'd done.”

“So, what, you knew I wouldn't forgive her so you kept that from me so I wouldn't know I shouldn't?” Daisy demanded. “Have you heard yourself lately?”

“Yes. Had to listen to tapes of interviews I did.”

She looked at him. He looked back at her, and somehow both of them started smiling. She wrapped her arms around him, holding on tight.

“Ah, watch it now, you're getting soppy on me.”

“You're soppier than I am,” she said, and he snorted. “You lied. For her, for me... You threw everything away for us and let her push you away, too, and that's not soppy? What's that they always go on about, how if you love someone—”

“Don't you say let them go.”

“No, but... they say that if you love them, you want their happiness over your own, which is what you did. You know you did,” Daisy insisted. “You are a big sop, biggest sop of them all.”

“Watch it, young lady,” he began, but his warning wasn't really that good when he heard himself laughing halfway through it. She was laughing, too, and holding onto him so tight it almost hurt, but he wasn't going to complain at all. He'd missed his little girl, and this wasn't the one he'd seen in Sandbrook, the growing up so fast it had passed him by, but Daisy the way he remembered her.

“You know what I said about school?”

“How could I forget?” Hardy asked, still not pleased with her vocabulary on the occasion.

She rolled her eyes. “It's just... they keep pushing things on you. Like, you're practically an adult, and like you have to know right this instant what you want to do about university, and everyone I know is in such a hurry to grow up and go out there, and I try to act like I am, too, but... I've seen it, Dad. I've seen what it did to you. To Mum. To all those people in your cases... Why is everyone in such a hurry to do it?”

He shook his head. “I thought I wanted it because I thought it was the only way out of their bickering. Away from him. Away from everything. Got on my own and found myself without a clue how to cope. Biggest mistake of my life.”

“I know. You told me.” Daisy turned away, wincing. “I don't know who I am. What I want. What I'm doing.”

“Sounds about right.”

She rolled her eyes. “Dad—”

“There's still time, Daize. Don't be in a rush about it. All those people making you think you should grow up—and me not being there to tell you that you shouldn't—you don't have to listen to them. Don't even have to listen to me, but I like it when you do.”

“This is what I missed,” she said, and he held back teasing her about being soppy. “I missed actually talking to you. Not the stupid surface stuff. This stuff. Things what matter.”

“Thought you did that with your mother.”

Daisy snorted. “Have you met Mum? You know what she's like. She's afraid to face the unpleasant stuff. You're not.”

“Bloody hell. You've got a boyfriend, don't you?”

* * *

Ellie stood, stock still and staring, her eyes had to be bulging a bit, not sure how to take in what she was seeing. Her life was full of surprises these days, like something tilted completely wrong after they got back from their holiday, and nothing had been right since. Of course, she knew that it was wrong even longer than that, but she'd known it was off since that damned holiday.

Still, she wasn't sure what to think of seeing Alec Hardy with his daughter. It wasn't just the abnormality of him acting like a dad—though he hadn't been completely terrible with Fred during the Sandbrook case—but the idea that he could smile so much and look truly, genuinely happy.

He hadn't, at first, not when his mother showed up and told him about his daughter, but as soon as that girl walked down the pier with her 99, he'd fought a smile that just grew and grew as she ran up to him, wrapping her arms around him. The word soppy was tossed about with laughter, and they seemed in another world as she took his hand and pulled him away down the boardwalk.

“Do you mind?” his mother asked, and Ellie's eyes flicked to her, still trying to understand how that was possible. She'd been sure, so sure, that Hardy's mother was dead, and his father, too. “She needs some time, and at least she's willing to listen to him. Not so much with Tess.”

“Tess was the one who cheated,” Ellie said, knowing how deep betrayal can cut, even if your partner didn't cheat with a child. “He was just the idiot that tried to cover it up.”

“He loved her,” Hardy's mother said. “More than she deserved, more than she ever loved him, though I suppose it's not fair to say she didn't try. She just... never understood how special he was.”

Ellie looked at her. “If by special you mean grumpy, irritating wanker, then yeah, I don't know how she missed it.”

His mother laughed, which surprised her because she thought she'd had a defensive rant coming her way after that comment about Hardy being special. “I see you've worked with him.”

“You didn't see the papers?” Ellie asked, not sure how anyone could not know her from them, not after Joe and the trial and now Sandbrook.

His mother shook her head. “I was... a bit removed from the situation. Up north, far north. Didn't hear about any of this until I got back.”

“He didn't tell you?”

“Not a word. Not his way.”

Silence settled over them again with that remark, and Ellie didn't know what to say. She would have hit Hardy if he was still there, since he hadn't even told his mother he was having surgery. Idiot. He should have done that, should have had his family there, should not have let her know by a damned bloody text.

She looked back at him with his daughter. Daisy was laughing at something he'd just said, and he was smiling.

“So strange,” Ellie whispered. “I knew that he was a father, but seeing him with her... That's something else. He wasn't terrible with my boy, but he's... it's like he's someone else. Can they do that, graft a new personality onto someone? Because that's what they did, replaced him in an instant.”

“Oh, no,” his mother said, her smile a bit wistful. “It's just... Daisy's not touched by the horrors he's seen. She's seeing them more now as she's older, but she's still that last bit of good that he clings to so fiercely, like it's all he's got even though he'd have so much more if he only let himself...”

Ellie waited, and Mrs. Hardy shook herself out of her thoughts.

“Sorry,” she said. “It's just... When he's with her, he can still see the good. Oh, he frets about losing her, about all the things he's seen that could go wrong and how she could end up hurt or dead, but he can see good again, and then he's years younger and happier. Not that it's not obvious she's his world. She has been since he first knew he was going to be a father.”

Ellie's heart hurt with the ache of remembering what Joe was like when she'd first told him about Tom coming. She winced.

“You wouldn't be the first to miss that side of him. He hides it well.”

“It wasn't about that,” Ellie said. She looked back toward the beach. Was that box still there? “I should go. I wasted enough time trying to get him seen by a doctor, and I should get the boys. It was nice to meet you, Mrs. Hardy.”

“Oh,” the other woman said, sounding a bit surprised. “No one's called me that for ages.”

* * *

“I don't think anyone is going to tell us anything different,” Rose said, and the Doctor nodded, not liking the idea of failure. He was normally more persuasive, but no amount of charm or psychic paper was convincing the local populace to tell them where Joe Miller had gone off to after his release. They were all glad he was gone, but not one of them would admit to seeing him after the trial ended.

More than one of them was lying, and he knew it, but short of forcing his way into their minds, he wasn't going to be able to prove it.

“We need someone who will break ranks. An outsider. Someone who has no investment in this place,” the Doctor said. “Which leads us back to the same man we needed to know about before—Hardy. He's that person to a tee, but then again, I don't know that he knows.”

“And he doesn't trust you, so he won't tell you anything.”

“Oh, now, that's a bit much to assume,” the Doctor said. “Not the first time we've gotten off on the wrong foot with people, but we have been able to overcome that. Mind you, if it's anything like that time on Galamantrix Nine, then we're in a bit of trouble, since that particular first impression somehow happened a century after I insulted them the first time, but then again, I think by the second time I visited them, they must have deserved it, but since I didn't know it at the time—”

“Doctor?”

“What?”

“You're not making any sense,” Rose said, and he grimaced. She gave him a smile, though, taking his hand and giving it a squeeze. “Come on, then. Let's find Hardy. You think he's still down by the beach? Or did you put some kind of tracker on him?”

“Oh, now that is a brilliant idea,” the Doctor said. “You really are good. Shame I didn't think of it, but then he wasn't very willing to be close to either of us. Should have done, though, since the TARDIS thought it was important.”

“Well, it's not every day you meet someone with your face,” Rose said, and he snorted, not comforted by that excuse. He was a Time Lord. He was better than that. He could think faster than most species. He had the knowledge of time and space within his head, so much knowledge, and he knew how to use it, too. He should have had a solution, should have stopped Hardy. That was easy enough to do, but no, he'd let that woman get in the way of his screwdriver and then drag him away completely.

Why?

Rose tugged on his arm, pointing to the pier. “Wait, that's him there, isn't it? With that girl?”

“She's ginger, too,” the Doctor said, frowning. “Bit young for him, isn't she?”

Rose hit him. “What makes you think that's what it is? It weren't like that for you and me back in the beginning, remember? Even now... it's not that. Not... It's—is this because of Reinette? You did meet her as a child first, after all, and then you—”

“You do realize that at nine hundred years, almost everyone in the universe is a child in comparison to me, don't you?” the Doctor countered. “If you choose to look at it like that—”

“No,” Rose said, voice tight. “Forget I said anything, though I do want to know who that girl is with him. She wasn't there earlier. Where did she come from? Is she connected?”

“Good questions,” the Doctor told her. “All of them. Let's get a bit closer, shall we?”

Rose grinned, and they ran, bypassing tourists who gave them both looks. He didn't care. They had work to do yet, and he didn't want to waste any more time. They'd already done that, trying to go around Hardy, and that was a mistake. He knew he couldn't bring Danny Latimer back from the dead, but if that killer was an alien, then he would probably kill again. He didn't want that to happen.

“Gran!” the ginger girl called out, rushing up to a woman at the end of the pier. “Dad says you brought him here when he was little. Is that true?”

“Excuse me,” Hardy said, joining his daughter at a slower pace. “Why would I lie about that?”

“Maybe because you never go anywhere you hate twice if you can help it?” the girl asked, getting a grunt from him and a bit of a laugh from Rose, though she couldn't hear it. “So, Gran, is it true? He came down here on holiday?”

“Oh, yes,” the gran in question answered. “He was about... twelve years old at the time. Growing up too fast, like all children do. Full of opinions and not afraid to speak them—”

“I wasn't wrong. You should have left him.”

“Regardless of what he thought, I did love him. I thought staying with him would prove it, but it was never enough for him,” she said. She shook her head. “Let's not argue about that. There was this incredible little shop here back then. I wonder if it's still there. Shall we take Daisy? And then maybe get some fish and chips afterward?”

Hardy gave her a disgusted look. “You know I can't eat that stuff.”

Rose was pulling on his arm, but the Doctor didn't look at her. Couldn't. This was impossible. He'd said it before, and it still was. And yet he knew what he'd heard and what he was seeing. _Who_ he was seeing.

“Sarah Jane?” the Doctor asked, his voice sounding strange. “Sarah Jane Smith?”


	6. Time for Questions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hardy reacts to his mother knowing the Doctor, and Miller gets pulled back into things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had so much trouble with this section. I wrote two scenes, threw them out, redid them. Then I did a couple more scenes, thought I'd finished the chapter but was a little iffy on it. Decided to sleep on it. 
> 
> Before I fell asleep, I knew I had to change it. So after work, I redid another scene and added one and at this point I've got such a bad headache I'm not sure of anything anymore, but I think the other way was too soon and it had to be like this.

* * *

_“Are you sure the hybrid is in danger?”_

_“What kind of question is that? Of course it is. You have to understand that. You are not an idiot. This child should not exist. This child is an aberration. Against the natural order of things. Shouldn't be here. Like a few other people in this world.”_

_“And you still think that losing it somewhere in the time stream is the best option?”_

_“Only option. It has to work.”_

_“You don't sound sure.”_

_“Do you know what an impossible choice is? Have you made one lately? Seems like I do it daily. Not sure why it's so damned difficult every time, but it always is. I made another. It's done. I won't go back. I can't. This is how it has to be.”_

* * *

“Doctor?”

Sarah Jane said it in a whisper, and it should have been lost in the crush of the crowd, the noise of the sea and the wind, but Rose heard it. She wasn't the only one who did. Hardy and his daughter looked confused, him a bit suspicious on top of that confusion. Sarah Jane knew them, of course she did. They'd met her and K-9 back at that school, fought the Krillitanes together, and she'd even wanted her to come along with them in the TARDIS. So had the Doctor.

“Sarah Jane,” he repeated, and she pushed past the others just in time for him to rush over and hug her. He lifted her up into the air like he'd done with Rose, which made Hardy do more than frown and turned the girl from confusion to fear.

“Gran? Put her down, don't do that, she's not—”

“She's not as fragile as you think,” Rose said, since it wasn't that long ago they'd been fighting aliens together.

Well, okay, it had been years, but she still looked good. As good as when Rose had been jealous of the attention that the Doctor was giving her. Kind of like she was now, here, in this moment, even though she knew that Sarah Jane had chosen to stay behind and to live her life on without the Doctor, a choice Rose could never make.

The Doctor set her back down and looked at her. “You never change.”

“Oh, you,” Sarah Jane said. “Of course I do. I keep getting older, but you... I suppose it's only been a few months for you, hasn't it? You don't look at all different from when I saw you last. Though... where's Mickey?”

“Now that is a story,” the Doctor said, getting excited. “Have I got so many to tell you. I could tell you about the Cybermen and Madame du Pompadour and the absorbaloff and—Oh, it is so good to see you again.”

She gave him a sad sort of smile. “I rather thought we'd never meet again.”

He frowned. “You could have come with. I did offer. TARDIS. Whole universe back for you to explore wherever you wanted to go. Time and space for you to command. Well, not quite, but you know what I mean.”

Rose grimaced. She felt nauseous, trying to ignore things the way the Doctor was. He didn't even see it, it was like he hadn't heard it, but she had. She'd heard everything he was so cheerfully overlooking in his happy reunion with Sarah Jane, the evidence standing right next to him. “Um, Doctor, don't you think that we should—”

“He's another one of them, isn't he?” Hardy asked, and Sarah Jane turned toward him. “Another one of your investigations into the damned bloody impossible. And, what, you convinced him if he looked like me he could get more information, that it? Joke's on him, since I'm the worst cop in Britain, but it ends now, do you hear me?”

Sarah Jane winced. “It's not like that. You don't understand. You—you're always so insistent on seeing things in such a flat, factual way. You never want to bend, even a little, despite knowing that life is far from black and white. Alec, this is not about using who you are to—”

“Save it,” he said. “I'm taking Daisy, and I'll leave you with this lot, but so help me, if you bring people like them near my daughter again—”

“Dad, Gran didn't do anything wrong,” Daisy protested. “She brought me down here because of what you and Mum did, and these people... they just showed up. It's... It's weird how he looks like you. Like... like you were when I was little. Not the hair, you never wore it like that, but the face... The voice is wrong. All wrong. It's confusing. And creepy.”

Hardy nodded. “We're leaving. Now.”

Sarah Jane winced. “Alec, not like this. Please, you haven't even—”

“Go get us a drink, Daisy. It'll be a bit of a walk to where we're going,” Hardy said, handing her a bill and shooing her forward toward the nearest stall. He whirled back, his voice low and his eyes as dangerous as the Doctor facing down his greatest enemy. “He hated what you did, hated every time you left us chasing your mad adventures and the unexplained—”

“You believed me,” Sarah Jane said, trying to reach for him.

“I saw those things. I knew what you were actually hunting,” Hardy said. “And I told you I understood, but I also told you I wasn't a part of it. I told you she was never to be a part of it. Never. Now she is. Do you have any idea how angry I am?”

“Yes,” Sarah Jane said with a wince.

“Don't come near my daughter,” Hardy said. He looked at the Doctor and Rose. “That goes for both of you as well. If you go near her, I will end you. Are we clear?”

“Perfectly,” Rose said, since he scared her, even if she was with the Doctor and shouldn't be afraid of anything. It was just... that darkness. It was like that moment when he'd realized he was about no second chances. That side of him was dark, like her first Doctor had been dark at times, gloomy and fresh from the Time War.

Hardy turned and walked away, and Rose shivered.

* * *

“I thought you said you weren't helping him again.”

Ellie sighed under the weight of her son's accusation. She didn't need this right now. She still couldn't explain that damned box, and she hadn't meant to get caught up in Hardy's mess again at all, but she'd been caught off guard, first by a box and then by a mother.

“He had a heart attack, Tom. I was only getting him to the doctor,” she said. “And I figure he's as good as gone again, since he'll have to take his daughter back to his ex-wife.”

Tom nodded, but he didn't look convinced, and Ellie wondered if he was disappointed. She shook her head, about to ask when someone pounded on the door. She frowned. Had the bloody bell stopped working again? Joe had said he'd fixed that, but Joe wasn't as good at fixing things as he claimed, now was he?

Ellie left Tom in the kitchen with his brother and went down the hall to the door. She opened it and frowned at the man standing there. “Hardy, what the bloody hell are you—”

“Language in front of my daughter,” he said, urging her inside. He followed after her, shutting the door and leaning against it. Ellie shook her head. He was not doing this to her. He couldn't. “I need your help.”

“Hardy—”

“That man in the suit,” Hardy began, and then he stopped himself. “Daisy, can you go get some tea for us? All of us if Miller has the supplies.”

“What do you think you're—”

“You drank that whole bottle of water on the way here,” Daisy said, frowning. “Are you sure you're not getting—”

“It's fine. Just need to stay hydrated,” he told her, and she nodded, not quite convinced but doing as he asked all the same. He watched her for a second, forced smile on his face before that fell and he looked at Ellie.

“That man with the box. He... I don't know what he is, but I know his type. My mother's found them before. It's what she does. She chases the impossible.”

“What?”

“UFOs, crop circles, conspiracy theories. She's never met one she could resist. And she finds others who share that passion, that insanity... She knows him. She knows the damned copy with the damned box. And she brought my daughter near him.”

Fathers and daughters, Ellie thought, knowing they were just as bad as the supposed Mama bear. She understood then, why he was on her doorstep, why he'd dragged his daughter here.

“You want me to protect her.”

Hardy nodded. “Far as I know, she's never been involved with anyone... dangerous. Not the ones she works with. She just... They're reckless. Whole lot of them. And she promised me years ago she'd never involve Daisy. She has.”

“They were here before your mother showed up.”

“Trust me, she wouldn't be here without them. Her life is those investigations. Saving the world from one inexplicable threat after another.”

“Oh,” Ellie said. “That's why you let people think she's dead. You're embarrassed by her. Alec Hardy, the man who won't let a psychic near his investigation, has a mother who chases aliens.”

He frowned. “That's not all she does.”

“You just said it was.”

“No, he didn't,” Daisy said, coming back into the room with a mug in her hands. No way that water had boiled that fast. She had to have microwaved it, and from the look on Hardy's face, he knew it. “Gran's famous, you know. Sarah Jane Smith. One of the greatest investigative reporters that ever lived.”

“Oh, Lord. Don't tell Olly,” Ellie said, and then frowned again. “You hate the press.”

“He always says Gran's the only one in the lot of them with any sort of integrity,” Daisy said. Then she leaned close to Ellie. “He also told me if I ever became a reporter, he'd disown me.”

Ellie laughed. Hardy shrugged. It was true, then, but that only made it funnier. Still, this wasn't much of a solution, was it? They needed to go back to the beach and the box. Not that she wanted Tom to know about it or he was willing to tell Daisy about it, either.

“Your car still working?”

“I'm not a bloody taxi.”

“And soon enough I'll be cleared to drive myself again, but that's not the case now,” Hardy said, getting frustrated. Daisy looked at him. “It's the pacemaker. Special driving restrictions, which Miller knows. She's just got to stop worrying you'll be a crap babysitter and let you take charge of her two delinquents.”

“Hey, just because Tom tried to help the father he can't help loving doesn't make him a bad kid,” Ellie protested. “And Fred is only two.”

“That's no excuse. He's a menace,” Hardy said, and Ellie glared at him until Daisy burst out laughing. She looked over at her and realized that Hardy had said that to get a reaction from both of them. “Give me that ride, Miller. I need my bloody wallet.”

“It'll be ten minutes,” she said, though she doubted that if they were to get a proper look at the box. “Tom, I'm running Hardy back to the beach so we'll be rid of him for good. Behave for Daisy. Won't be long, promise.”

* * *

“I have missed you,” the Doctor repeated, not sure if he was annoying either of his companions. “I had meant to take a jaunt by to see you next time Rose went to see Jackie—that's her mum, terrifying woman—but we haven't been back since the Cybermen, and that didn't feel like the right time to drop in on you. Would you have minded, us showing up like that? Just boom and there? Well, no, it's more of a whirr or a—what would you call it now? I'm sure there's a proper word for the sound the TARDIS makes, and of course I know what it is in my own language, but—”

“Doctor,” Rose interrupted, and he forced himself to stop. “That's better. Sometimes we just need a word in edgewise. Not sure you need to breathe, though.”

“Cheeky,” he said, and she grinned back at him. He turned to Sarah Jane. “Tea on the TARDIS?”

“That sounds lovely,” she agreed, walking along with them back to the beach. Rose looped an arm around hers, and he smiled, watching them get along in a way he'd never really expected any of his companions to do. Some of them died, that was how he lost them, or he said goodbye to them in time and left them where they were.

“So,” the Doctor said, “was it the murder that brought you here? Did you find something alien about it? I found something, though I'm not entirely sure what it means, not yet. Rose suggested—Rose is very clever, but you already knew that—that the killer might not be human. I mean, it's not like murder isn't a human trait, unfortunately—humans are very brilliant and great—but they have their downsides, too. The violence. Always the violence...”

Rose frowned. “We're not that bad.”

“I did say that,” the Doctor told her. He turned to Sarah Jane. “What don't I know? Do you have anything besides the echoes to tie this to anything extraterrestrial?”

“Doctor,” Rose began, still frowning. “Are you sure _that's_ what you want to ask her?”

The Doctor looked at her. “Oh, you mean you think I should have a side interest in all of those domestics, do you? My last form would be ashamed of you, Rose, and anyway, there's time for that yet. Priorities. If there is a killer alien lifeform on the loose, one that can pass itself off as human, then we have to stop it. Which leads me back to did you have something that would prove the involvement of something outside of this earth?”

“No,” Sarah Jane answered. “Nothing besides...”

“Besides?” the Doctor prompted. Odd that she'd stopped speaking, he didn't like that much, or the look on her face. Sometimes he could be wholly blind to what was going on with his companions, and Rose liked to smack him when was, but he wasn't blind this time. He could see the distress all over Sarah Jane. “What is it?”

“Nothing.”

“Oh, now that's a bold faced lie,” he said. “It is very much something, I can tell. Is it—The TARDIS put us in the path of DI Hardy. Grumpy man, fabulous accent, looks like me. And we have a killer who is possibly an alien who can possibly pass for human... I was going to ignore the domestic angle, but is your family—one, incidentally, you claimed not to have—shame on you for that, why would you lie to me?—is this family of yours somehow... not human? Are they as counterfeit as our killer?”

Rose moved, stepping around in front of him. She looked shocked, too, and he didn't really know why she had to go and block his view of Sarah Jane when he was asking some very important questions. They had lots to do yet, and she should be focused on what Sarah Jane was going to tell them. She was interfering and not in a good way this time.

She put her hand on his arm, her disbelief and distress giving her far too much resemblance to her mother. “You think that guy is running around looking like you because he's some _other_ sort of alien? And that Sarah Jane is hiding these other aliens... why?”

He shrugged. “I have no idea, but if she wasn't involved in some way, she wouldn't have started running the minute you distracted me.”

“You looked at me for a second,” Rose said, glancing behind her, shaking her head. “A second. I didn't think she was that fast, and why didn't you say something before she got that far away? Wait, is Sarah Jane an alien, too? That why she ran off on us?”

“All very good questions,” the Doctor said. “And I would definitely ask her if she hadn't possessed some extraordinary speed for a human her age. Granted, she probably found the first cover she could and disappeared, since that's what we do when we haven't got a TARDIS to run to, and she hasn't got one. Plus... she's running away from us, which means she wouldn't go toward the TARDIS, though again—why run?”

“You can just track her, right? Point the screwdriver, follow the trail?”

He gave Rose a look. “She's not a secreter, hasn't been exposed to radiation, and I didn't put a tracker on her, either. I should, though. I should just go putting trackers on everyone I meet from now on so I can find them later because there's bound to be trouble. I'll have to find somewhere that they sell them in bulk.”

“Are you joking?”

“Would I joke about something like that?” The Doctor asked, shaking his head as he moved away. “Come on. The TARDIS has Sarah Jane's DNA profile. We can use that to track her down. Or, if she actually has been replaced by some kind of alien, we'll know as soon as we run a quick scan.”

“You're sure that's what it is. You're not even considering the possibility that it's something else?”

“There are an infinite number of possibilities here,” the Doctor said, troubled. “And yes, I am aware of the others. I just... choose to prove or disprove this one first.”

* * *

“I cannot believe I am doing this with you,” Miller muttered, and Hardy tried to ignore her. He'd only asked for a ride. He didn't want or need anything else from her. He wasn't sure why she thought he did. He just needed to get close to that box and figure out what the hell it was.

“You're not. Go home.”

“I'm not leaving you here to have another heart attack,” Miller told him. “I want to know how that box got here. It wasn't there, and then it was, and I'm going insane. I refuse to go insane. Joe, what he did, that tried to break me, and I almost let it, but I won't. I won't let him win, and I won't let that bloody box win. So shut it, Hardy. I am going to that beach.”

He grunted, going down onto the sand. He hated walking on sand, how uneven and tricky it was. He tried to ignore it and the tightening in his chest, refusing to let his heart stop him. He just had a few more steps to take and then.

“Bloody hell,” he said, stopping short. The door was open. He knew it hadn't been when he'd started down. He would have seen it, that light that shone against the dusk, illuminating the sand.

“They must have come back,” Miller said, walking up next to him. “Is that paper? Hung with a light for some kind of optical illusion?”

“You think so?” Hardy asked, giving her a shove forward. She cursed him, but she'd fallen inside the box. He leaned inside the door, seeing it the same as he remembered it from earlier. “Told you. Bigger on the inside.”

“Wanker. I'm going to kill you,” she said, dragging herself up with the help of the ramp. “This is... completely impossible.”

“Said the same thing myself. Still don't understand it.” Hardy walked around the room, touching the strange coral looking walls. He swore he heard something humming. A machine of some kind, he thought.

“This is...” Miller looked around, mouth open and gaping a bit like those fish she liked to eat. “Bloody hell.”

He'd said that, too, and it was some comfort to know he wasn't alone in his reaction to this thing. This place. Whatever the hell it was. He couldn't explain it. This was something his mother dealt with, not him. He used facts. He built cases that could be prosecuted in court, not ones that could only be told around campsites, horror stories to scare the children, things that his mother couldn't share with anyone. Not even him. He was never willing to listen.

“I don't understand. How can this be possible?”

Hardy shook his head. He couldn't explain it. Not at all.

“What?” another voice called. “What? What is this? TARDIS doors open? No. Impossible. I locked them when I went out. No, wait, not the last one out. Rose! Did you leave the TARDIS doors open?”

“Excuse me? I don't think I've ever done that,” Rose said. “And I think you're wrong, Doctor.”

“You've got the only other key to the TARDIS—oh, wait. Sarah Jane might have one. Not sure. Can't remember now if I made her give it back or not,” the Doctor said, scratching the back of his neck. Then he looked across the room and saw Hardy watching him. “Oh. That. You think my alien impersonator theory is wrong, then.”

“The TARDIS let him in, Doctor. You're wrong.”

“Don't go assuming anything,” the Doctor said, shaking a warning finger at her. “He is connected to Sarah Jane. She ever give you a key, Mr. Hardy? One like—oh, show him yours, Rose.”

Miller came over to Hardy's side. “They're blocking the bloody door.”

“I noticed.”

The Doctor pulled something out of his pocket, the same device he'd had earlier. “Since you seem unwilling to discuss keys, perhaps we should have a little bit of a look-see, shall we? Oh, that rhymes. Since when did I start rhyming? Have I always rhymed like that?”

“Doctor—”

“We'll just take a quick little—you're in the way. Again.”

“I told you," Miller said, even as Hardy pushed her out of the way. "He might be a knob, but you're not killing him.”

“Oh, please," the Doctor said, rolling his eyes and twirling the thing in his hand. "It's a screwdriver. It won't kill him. It won't even tickle. He wouldn't even know I was doing it except I've said I'm going to and he can see me and I can—No. That's not right. That's—it won't. It can't—”

“Doctor?”

“No, Doctor. Please tell me you didn't.”

Hardy heard his mother's voice. The Doctor and Rose turned around, giving Hardy a glimpse of her in the doorway.

“Please tell me you didn't scan him,” his mother said. “Tell me you didn't.”

The Doctor whirled on her, grabbing hold of her like he might hurt her, and it was like seeing himself with a suspect he wanted to kill for what he knew they'd done, that anger, that dangerous, violent anger.

“What did you do?” the Doctor demanded, and Hardy moved, refusing to let that man hurt his mother no matter how angry he was with her himself.

His mother's voice was a soft, pained whisper. “What you asked me to do.”


	7. Time for Fixing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The discussion of what Sarah Jane did is thrown off course by the TARDIS.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had actually thought I'd be somewhere else by the end of this chapter, but as it dragged on, I didn't think that trying to force it to reach that point was worth it.
> 
> I did get to one of the other scenes that made me write this part. The Doctor says it here, and I loved it, but that's about all that I liked about it. Then again, it's very difficult to like much of anything written with a migraine.

* * *

_“I can't believe you want me to do this.”_

_“Are you saying you won't do it?”_

_“I am saying you can't have thought this through. If you had, you'd realize you were wrong. There must be some alternative, and you cannot possibly have ruled them all out already. Aren't you the one that always says the universe is infinite? How is there not another way?”_

_“Because there isn't.”_

_“I think you're saying that because it's what you want to believe. It isn't actually true.”_

* * *

“What I asked you to do?” the Doctor demanded, his voice almost a roar, angrier than Rose thought she'd ever seen this regeneration. He had been mad at the Sycorax, horrified by the Cybermen, almost tempted by the Krillitane, but even the Beast hadn't gotten this reaction from him. She wouldn't have thought anything but a Dalek could, and he was not facing a Dalek. He had an old friend in his arms but she swore he could tear Sarah Jane apart with his bare hands—and that said something because this Doctor had never seemed all that imposing physically. Oh, he was tall, but he was so thin, and she would always consider her first Doctor more threatening in a physical sense.

“Yes,” Sarah Jane insisted, quiet and calm and so out of place against the Doctor, so small compared to him.

“And when did _I_ tell you to do this?” the Doctor demanded. “You know I didn't. I told you to live your life. Well, I don't know, perhaps I didn't actually say it, but that's what I meant. I wanted you to move on and have a fabulous life. You said you didn't—that wasn't what I wanted. Didn't want you pining. Didn't think you would. Not Sarah Jane. She was too strong and smart for that. Or should I say devious and underhanded and spiteful and—”

“You don't understand,” Sarah Jane said, looking hurt and a little desperate. Rose saw fear, too, and she hated that she did. She also hated herself for being jealous. “You were never to know.”

“What?” he asked, and the word made Rose shudder. Just when the Doctor might maybe have hurt Sarah Jane, Hardy pushed him off of her, knocking him into the railing.

“You stay away from my mother,” Hardy told him. He reached for her, looking her over. “Are you all right?”

She shook her head. “No. I'm not hurt. I'm not all right, either. None of us will be, I fear.”

“That's it. We're going,” he said. “Come on, Miller.”

His friend started to cross the room when the TARDIS doors slammed shut. They all looked over at them, and then the vortex came to life. Rose looked back at it, frowning. She knew it could work without the Doctor driving—she'd done the driving before, but he'd also programmed it, only this didn't seem much like a program.

It wasn't.

“No, no, no,” the Doctor cried, rushing over to the console. “What are you doing? You know you can't. Not with that aberration on board. We could end up anywhere. Everywhere. You can't do this.”

He went to the controls, frantically pushing buttons and pulling levers, trying to stop the ship. She had seen things go wrong before, and as enthusiastic as the Doctor was, he rarely got them where he said he was taking them, but this was different.

She wasn't so sure they'd survive this one, or if they did, they were going to crash in a parallel universe again. She grabbed onto the railing as the TARDIS shook. “Doctor—”

“Alec!” Sarah Jane's scream was louder than Rose's, and she looked over to see him fall, clutching his chest and struggling to breathe. Miller rushed over to him, berating him for his tie as she opened up his shirt.

“It's not like I don't know you own jumpers. What the bloody hell is wrong with one of them? Why do you always have to wear a bloody suit? Are you _trying_ to kill yourself?”

He reached up, trying to bat her hand away, but his hand flopped down before getting close to her. Rose swallowed, her eyes going back to the Doctor.

“Where are your pills? Please tell me you have them, you wanker,” Miller said. She turned to Sarah Jane. “You're his mother. You know how bad his heart is. You have any of them?”

“No. He never would admit how bad it was, not to me, not to Daisy, not anyone.”

“The hell,” Miller snapped. “He almost died. He's dying now. He's got a damned heart condition—”

“Of course he does,” the Doctor muttered, giving the TARDIS console a whack with his mallet. “That's the problem with having only one when you're supposed to have two. Can't do it. Unsustainable. Surprised it lasted as long as it has.”

“What are you on about?” Miller asked, and then shook her head. “No. Don't bother. Just stop whatever that was so we can get him to a doctor. A real doctor. Not you. You're clearly no doctor.”

“I am _the_ Doctor, not _a_ doctor,” the Doctor said. Then he closed his eyes, swallowing before repeating to himself. “Aberration. Just an aberration. That's all.”

“You know that's not true,” Sarah Jane said. “You know what he really is.”

“He can't be,” the Doctor told her, not looking back at her. “He _shouldn't_ be.”

“Nevertheless,” Sarah Jane insisted. “He is.”

* * *

Ellie hadn't seen Hardy like this since he collapsed that night chasing a suspect. He'd looked terrible off and on since then, right up until his pacemaker surgery and after, but she'd never been as convinced he was going to die on her as she had been that night. She'd been angry about him only telling her about the surgery by text, but she hadn't been scared for him like she was now.

She didn't want to be scared for him. She didn't want to feel anything for the irritating bastard, but she was worried. She thought he was about to die in her arms, and she hated that idea.

“Turn that bloody thing off. It's killing him,” Ellie said. “Turn it off, damn it. He's got a pacemaker, and whatever that thing is, it's interfering. He's going to die, and this wanker does not die in my arms, do you understand me?”

“A pacemaker? Honestly? That's the best they could come up with?” the Doctor asked, shaking his head in disgust. “Like that's any sort of fix. Oh, maybe, if he wasn't the sort of thing that shouldn't exist and wasn't coming apart because of it, but no pacemaker is going to stop the inevitable. Too much damage, and considering that the rate of his heart should actually be doubled to compensate for the missing piece, setting it down to normal human level would be fatal. It's not the TARDIS. It's what he is. That is what's killing him.”

Ellie's head hurt. “You're not making any sense, and you're still standing there like there's nothing wrong. Open the damn doors, at least.”

“Oh, now that is a very bad idea. Rose, you want to show them why that's a very bad idea?”

“Can you open the doors in the vortex?” Rose asked, and he frowned. “I know you've opened them in space before, but if we open them now—”

“The shields will hold,” the Doctor said. “I think.”

“You think?”

He shrugged, and the girl rolled her eyes. Hardy's mother shook her head. “Don't. We'll wait.”

“I'm not bloody waiting,” Ellie said. “What part of he is not dying in my arms don't you understand? We are getting him to a hospital. Now. And as soon as we do, we're arresting him.”

“What?” the Doctor asked. “I haven't done anything wrong. Not that I haven't been arrested before without committing an actual crime, but in this case, I'm perfectly innocent, and I don't see why I have to be arrested for pointing out the truth—mind you, it has happened before, a great many times, since I always seem to find dictators or regimes that want the truth hidden forever—but what would be the charge this time? I hardly think I can be arrested for sedition this time.”

“This time?” Ellie asked, and then she shook her head. She was not letting him distract her. “No, I don't care. We need to get him to a doctor.”

“It won't save him,” the Doctor said, though he did turn away from the center of the room for a change. His eyes went to Hardy, and his expression went slack, as though he'd been forcing the calm facade and distracted air all along. He winced.

“You can help him,” Hardy's mother said, and the blonde nodded. “You know you can.”

He seemed to hesitate. “I can't.”

“Yes, you can,” the blonde insisted. He looked over at her. “You're upset, and I'm not entirely sure why—I mean, part of it I can guess, but is being angry really worth letting him die?”

“He shouldn't exist.”

“He does,” Mrs. Hardy insisted. Or Sarah Jane Smith. Ellie wasn't actually sure what to call her. “And I know you. I know under the gruff manner and the superior airs, you care. You care so much more than you can stand. That's why you left me behind, isn't it? Well, perhaps not, but it's why you never came back. So you could believe I went on and had a happy, normal life. You never had to see me get old and die. You never do with any of us, do you?”

“No,” he said, voice soft. “I see you die... but I never see you old.”

“Please,” she said. Ellie swallowed. She knew that feeling, like when her boys were sick or that horrible moment when she'd thought the body on the beach was Tom.

The Doctor sighed, taking out that same weird device he called a screwdriver. He pointed it at Hardy, his brow furrowing as he did. He shook his head. “I can set that thing to its proper level, but it won't do much good. The necessary speed will wear out that heart within the hour.”

Ellie stared at him. One, she wasn't sure she believed him. Two, that had to be wrong. “Are you saying there's nothing to be done? He just... dies? The pacemaker was supposed to save him.”

“And it would have done, I suppose, if he was a normal human, but since he's not, it won't do much. Delay the inevitable for a very, very short bit of time, that's all,” the Doctor said, looking over at Hardy's mother. “I am so sorry.”

She flinched. “Don't say that.”

“Hold on,” Rose said. “What about... New Earth? Or somewhere like it. Those cats, they had all sorts of things and technology. I barely remember it because I had that thing in my head, but they cured diseases and grew a whole new race. Wouldn't there be something there you could use to help fix him?”

The Doctor frowned. “Possibly. Though... I didn't exactly _choose_ to go anywhere. We had unfinished business at that beach. Remember? Child killer who could be an alien masquerading as human and all that?”

“What?” Ellie demanded. “You are insane, aren't you? And you—I know he said you chased this sort of thing, but you're letting a man who says your son shouldn't exist and thinks my husband is an alien decide what's to be done with him? What is this? Why won't anyone get him to a real doctor?”

“Because it's not what he needs,” his mother answered, and the shaking around them stopped. She looked over at the Doctor and then at Rose, and then she went to the door, opening it up.

Ellie stared. Impossible. They were at the beach, weren't they? Then why was everything out there so... so damned white?

* * *

“Oh, I do think the TARDIS agreed with you, Rose,” the Doctor said, walking down the ramp to join Sarah Jane at the door. “I think we may actually be on New Earth again. Mind you, things look a bit different. Not a lot different, but there's considerably less people here. Not that I'm complaining. Not looking forward to battling a bunch of cats in wimples again.”

“Wimples?” 

“They were nuns, too,” he told Sarah Jane. “Shame I never got to share this with you the first time around. Really, true pity it is. Was, now. We're here. Well... We might be. Not entirely sure this is the same hospital, though it looks very much the same.”

“It does,” she agreed, running down the ramp to stand beside them. “Is this enough? Can you help him with what's here? The TARDIS could have done it on her own, couldn't she?”

“Well...” the Doctor said. “Not quite as such. Close, perhaps, but the underlying problem... No. I don't think so.”

“You said he should have two hearts,” Rose said, biting her lip. “That's what has to be fixed, isn't it? If he had the proper amount of hearts, he'd be fine.”

The Doctor grimaced. The situation was more complicated than that, but in theory—simplified, barest of the possible complexities barely any sort of comprehension, not that he wanted to go into the depths of explanation necessary—that would fix everything.

He knew it wouldn't. Same as Sarah Jane. That was why she didn't want him knowing. She'd wanted to keep this from him, the knowledge of what Hardy was. His existence shouldn't be possible, and they both knew that. Yet he was here, and he was dying, and Sarah Jane would never forgive him if he allowed that to happen. Same with Rose.

Even this one he kept calling Miller who kept saying stuff she thought made it seem like she didn't care if he lived or died which was very much not the case.

“We'll have to see what we've got here,” the Doctor said. He looked back at Hardy and grimaced. “Can't really leave you on your own, and carrying you is right out. Very well, we'll just adjust this setting and...”

Hardy sat up, gasping, giving him a weak glare, hand over his heart. “It's not supposed to be that fast.”

“Actually, it is,” the Doctor told him. What was it Rose had said Cassandra called it? A samba? Yeah, that was about right. And now Hardy was doing a bit closer to one, but that wouldn't be enough. “Come along now. We haven't a lot of time, and we don't know if this place will have what we need.”

“No,” Miller said. “No, we are not going with you, and we are not going out there into... into whatever the bloody hell that is.”

“Alec,” Sarah Jane said. “Please.”

He gave her a look, but when she held out her hand to him, he let her help him up. Miller rose after him, shaking her head but following anyway, and the Doctor knew without having to be told that she was afraid he'd fall over and die on the spot. That, he hoped, could be prevented.

Not that he should. He was talking about an aberration after all. If his fellow Time Lords were alive, then Hardy would have been—well, suffice to say he didn't think that Hardy would be alive now if they were still in existence.

“Come on, now,” the Doctor urged. _“Allons-y,_ Alec.”

Hardy glared at him, but the Doctor ignored it, going over to the elevators and powering them on. “Mind the disinfectant.”

“The what?”

Rose grinned, well aware of what was awaiting the others. The Doctor frowned, and then he shook his head, pointing the screwdriver at the controls, disabling it. “Never mind.”

“What? Denying them the disinfectant? You're ruining the experience—”

“Not quite sure his reaction to that particular surprise wouldn't kill him, and that would kind of defeat this whole enterprise,” the Doctor told her. He waved the others into the elevator. “Hurry up now. We don't have a lot of time. Which is odd for me to say, I must admit. Time Lord with a TARDIS, able to go through time and space—I should have all the time in the world—ooh, but I shouldn't say that because then I get Ian Fleming and his not so fictional story and—”

“Stop it,” Sarah Jane said, and he looked over at her. “The person without time is my son, so just _stop it.”_

He nodded, ushering her inside, the last of them, and then pointed the screwdriver at the panel, sending them to the appropriate floor. At least, he hoped it was. He hadn't checked the directory to confirm that, but he thought he remembered it from last time.

“Exactly what is this place?” Miller asked. “I've never heard of a New Earth hospital, and I still don't understand how that... box could drive us to one.”

“She didn't, actually,” the Doctor said. “She flew us here. Well, that's not entirely true. She doesn't fly so much as... materialize.”

“I'm sorry I asked,” Miller muttered.

The doors to the elevator opened, and she just stared instead of going out, mouth hanging open a bit. The Doctor hadn't actually been in the operating rooms before, and neither had Rose, even if they'd been here before. Well, now, this room was something else, wasn't it? Almost enough to give him a bit of a pause, and he had seen all sorts of horrible things in his nine hundred years. He wouldn't be surprised, though, if some of the others were terrified, and that was without the cats.

“Time to get to work,” he said, rushing over to the console.


	8. Time for Further Complications

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor helps Hardy with his heart problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't pretend to know science or medicine very well. I tried to make it make as much sense as I could, but it's probably inaccurate.
> 
> Then again, my whole story is inaccurate, so there we go.

* * *

_The doors closed, and that was it. The hybrid was gone. Safe, but gone._

_That was the best he could do for it, leaving it behind. He had found a shelter for it, one he knew well, one that would be strong enough to withstand just about anything that could come at it, and that was enough._

_That had to be enough._

_Still, doors closed and alone, he sat down and wept._

* * *

“I don't actually think you want to watch,” Rose said, and Ellie looked over at her, frowning. She didn't have any idea who this girl was, and why should she listen to her? She was older than Chloe, but Ellie still had years on her—not as many as Hardy's mother, but still—she had more experience, didn't she? She was a detective, and she'd been betrayed in one of the worst ways possible.

Who was this girl to tell her anything?

“I am not letting him kill Hardy,” Ellie said. “Shouldn't even matter, I should still hate him for stealing my job and being a complete bastard, but...”

“But?”

She remembered Hardy's kindness when he had arrested Joe. How he'd been gentle with her, and how in some ways that gentleness was worse than anything else, but how he hadn't just taken control of that situation and seen her through those first few horrible nights after her husband was arrested but also later came along and saved her in the most unlikely way possible during Joe's farce of a trial. He'd given her Sandbrook, the case that almost destroyed him, and he'd said he expected it to ruin her as it did everyone else, but she didn't think he believed that.

And she'd solved it. She'd given him peace. She'd given herself something else.

Confidence. Control. Things that Joe and his behavior had taken away from her, but she'd gotten them back on her own. She felt better for it, and while she'd never admit it—she owed Hardy for all of it. She still found him irritating, but he was not just the boss she hated, the one who irked her. He was so much more than that, and yet she'd let him go with nothing more than a handshake.

Except he'd come back in a strange blue box and nearly died in the process. He was still nearly dying.

“It's okay to admit you care about him,” Rose told her, and Ellie gave her a look. “People can care about each other. Even when it's weird and uncomfortable and they don't always feel the same back. We'd be nowhere if people didn't care. If he didn't care.”

“Your doctor.”

Rose shook her head. “No, the Doctor, he belongs to the world. The universe, even. I like to think he's mine when we're alone, or when we rush off hand in hand for an adventure, but then he has to save a planet or a species, and I remember—he belongs to so much more than me. Best friend I've ever had, though, I'll tell you that.”

Friends. Did Ellie consider this weird thing she had with Hardy a friendship?

“Will it work?” she heard herself ask. “Is Hardy going to live?”

The Doctor, who was far enough away he shouldn't have heard her at all, was the one to answer first, Rose and Sarah Jane still trying to find words. “Difficult to say, actually. It's not like he should exist at all, so anything is possible and yet not possible all at the same time.”

Ellie folded her arms over her chest. “That's not the first time you've said that. That Hardy shouldn't exist. Now, I know he's a right bastard, I've been on the end of his temper more than once—don't look at me like that, he's not that sort of man—took the blame for his ex-wife even though she cheated on him, and I know he was never brought up for excessive force—but he's got a right to live same as anyone else.”

“I didn't say he didn't.”

“Yes,” Ellie insisted. “You did. He shouldn't exist, he's an aberration—”

“She's right. You did say all that,” Rose reminded him. She looked over at Sarah Jane, who was pacing in agitation. “And you're hurting her all over again. You know, it's one thing to leave us behind, but when you go leaving us and denying that you—”

“Don't,” the Doctor snapped, turning to her and looking dangerous again. “I didn't know. I wouldn't have—I know that it shouldn't—oh, back then it would probably have meant another exile and I'm not sure full-term would have been a possibility given the feelings of some of my fellow Time Lords, but _I didn't know.”_

Rose flinched with his words. “I'm sorry.”

He nodded, turning back to his work. “This will take a while. Perhaps you should show them the sights. Tell them about the last time we were here.”

Rose sighed. “You mean when I had a bitchy trampoline in my head?”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. I don't remember a lot of this place.”

“Then you can discover it all again anew,” the Doctor told her. She frowned. “I can't do this with her pacing and her fuming. Take them out of here and go. Now.”

“Hey, I never said I was leaving Hardy to you and your—”

“He won't hurt Alec,” Sarah Jane said. She waited for the Doctor to nod, and then she let Rose pull her along by the arm. Ellie started to protest, but the other two had her out of the room and the door shut before she could do much about it.

* * *

“Some promise,” Tom muttered, and Daisy grimaced. At least Fred had fallen asleep hours ago. Tom was still awake, watching the doors and windows for any sign of his mother's return, and the longer she took, the angrier he got.

He blamed it all on her father, and Daisy knew it wasn't her dad's fault. Not alone. Miller had a choice to go, and she'd gone. Daisy's dad hadn't forced her to go.

He might be the reason they weren't back, though, and that worried her. She didn't want to think about her father dying, but she knew it was still possible.

And that stranger who looked like her father and knew her gran... Was he her uncle or something? If he was, why didn't anyone say that?

Tom dug out his phone. He pushed the button.  “Aunt Luce? Have you heard from Mum?”

Daisy turned away, taking out her own phone and ringing her father again. He didn't pick up, so she tried her gran. Nothing. Again. She swallowed. Something was really wrong, then. She had to figure it was her dad.

“She said he was fine,” Tom told his aunt. “And that they were just getting something for him from the beach. She said she'd be back—”

Daisy reached over and took the phone. “He's overreacting. I think they just pulled in.”

“What do you think you're doing?” Tom demanded as she hung up. “They didn't pull in. They're not here. You can't—”

“Your cousin is Olly Stevens, right?” Daisy asked, and Tom frowned at her. “My dad and your mom, whatever they're doing, that is _not_ a story. I won't let your cousin turn it into one. Those papers destroyed my dad's life once. They won't do it again.”

“You don't know that there's anything to destroy,” Tom began, and she glared at him. “I just meant—we don't know what happened. Not that he—”

“If something's wrong, then it's probably my dad's heart. If not that, then it's a case. One of my gran's cases, maybe, or maybe that guy's my uncle, but either way, I won't let your cousin use my family to sell newspapers.”

Tom glared at her. “I want to know where my mum is, and if your father had anything to do with that, I don't care if he's in the papers or—”

“We can go down to the beach ourselves,” Daisy said, and Tom frowned at her. “We just need to find a safe place for Fred—and not with your aunt or cousin.”

Tom glared at her, but he finally nodded. “Beth and Mark. They'll take him.”

* * *

The hospital wasn't very interesting when it wasn't running, and though Rose had filled in what she could from what the Doctor told her afterward, she hadn't been able to tell anyone much about the place. She could tell that Miller didn't believe her about Cassandra, and Sarah Jane was too worried about her son to pay any real attention to what Rose was saying.

She circled back about then, leading them to the operating room. She figured he'd used the sonic screwdriver on the door after they'd left—stood to reason since Miller had not been happy about being forced out—so she stopped and knocked.

“Doctor?”

The door opened, but he held up a hand. “Don't wake him. Think... me with regeneration sickness. Or worse. Still, he should recover, but it will be an adjustment.”

“In more ways than one,” Rose said, going toward him. She twisted her lip a bit. “Are you gonna tell him? You have to, don't you? He won't understand why he went through all this if you don't.”

The Doctor sighed. He looked exhausted, which was unusual for this regeneration that always bounded everywhere and seemed to have endless energy. “He won't believe it.”

“Don't be so sure of that,” Sarah Jane said. “It's not as though he doesn't know the truth of things. Knowing and wanting to chase them are two very different things, but Alec does know about aliens. He knows a great deal more than you think.”

“You brought him in contact with aliens?” the Doctor asked, fatigue dropping away as anger overtook him again. “Do you have _any_ idea what you did?”

“I didn't do it on purpose,” Sarah Jane said, getting angry herself. “You think I'd expose a child to your life if I had any choice in the matter? Never. Even with all the wonder I saw at your side, no. It was never the life I wanted for Alec, but it _happened._ Trouble found him, just like it always found you. You were always there when you needed to be. And... so was he.”

“No,” Miller said. “He hates that sort of thing. That psychic that claimed to be helping with Danny's case, he was ready to arrest him, to hurt him, even if he had pursued it—”

“That's because Alec knows what people with those kinds of abilities are actually like—”

“Hold on,” Rose said, raising a hand as she did. “Does he have abilities? I mean, he has to have something, doesn't he? He didn't just get the short end of the stick with the heart thing, right?”

Sarah Jane smiled, the pride of a mother all over her. “Alec is brilliant.”

Miller snorted, and Sarah Jane looked at her. That was not a good thing, not at all. Rose knew that look. That was Sarah Jane's lecture face, and it could be very unpleasant.

“Would you have ever known it was your husband?”

Miller fell silent, and Rose thought she was angry enough to hurt someone. Then again, if she had been the one married to a psycho like that, she'd be worried. Not that she hadn't come close. She had almost been a bride a few times, not that she'd ever told her mum about them because she'd go mental, but that didn't mean that it hadn't happened.

“So, how before he wakes up?” Rose asked, changing the subject.

The Doctor blinked. “Difficult to say. I could have bypassed the drugs from my system by now, but then he not only lacks the training, I'm not sure the nature of his physiology would allow it. Then again, that same physiology will purge the drugs faster than a typical human. It shouldn't take too long, which is probably a good thing as I don't believe we want to linger here. Then again, moving is an issue as well. Time Lords have a faster than normal recovery rate, but then we're not talking about a Time Lord. Not exactly. There's a bit of—”

“What the bloody hell did you do to me?”

“Ah, I think that answers that question.”

* * *

“Careful now. Don't want to push your system more than it has been today,” the Doctor said as Hardy tried to sit up. “Mind you, it was pushed back where it should have been. You should have had a binary vascular circulatory system. You didn't. Well, no, judging from the mess your insides were, you started out with one, but one of your hearts was underdeveloped and failed when you were still young. Your other heart... made do.”

Hardy put a hand over his chest. The Doctor knew that the samba inside him wasn't an easy adjustment, but it would keep him alive, which was more than the pacemaker would have done. “This... is... fucked up.”

“I keep expecting to wake up,” Miller said. “I know I'm awake, but we're supposedly on another planet. In the future. And he just gave you a second heart. That's not possible.”

“It is,” the Doctor said. “Well, it's more complicated than that, what I did, I mean. His body had adapted to only having one—which just goes to show how resilient Time Lord genetics are—really, really incredible things—and that had to be undone, among other things.”

“You're bloody joking,” Miller said, and Hardy snorted, hand over the second heart. “He is joking. And Time Lord? What is that? Some made up name of some—what, alien race? You can be serious.”

The Doctor frowned. “Why not?”

“Because... it's pompous and conceited and completely fake.”

Pained, the Doctor pointed a finger at her. “I'll have you know that my people were very real. Gone now, so more a legend or a myth of things that were, but we were—we _are_ —that is, _I_ am—very real. And yes, the name is kind of pompous, but you see, we do have all of time and space at our fingertips, and that means that we are sort of... ah, well, it's a fitting name despite the conceit.”

“Not that he doesn't have plenty of ego,” Rose muttered, and he gave her a look. She shrugged. “You do. It's annoying sometimes, but it's also good to know that you're usually brilliant enough to get us out of anything.”

“Usually?” the Doctor asked, still frowning at her. “Exactly what are you—”

“You're an alien,” Miller said. “And... _he's_ an alien?”

“Half,” the Doctor corrected. He'd seen that much in his initial scan, though even if he hadn't been of mixed origin, he would have been impossible. The Time Lords were gone, and they could never come back. He knew that. He was alone.

This aberration didn't change it. The Doctor was still alone. Hardy was an anomaly, and he could be... well, he wouldn't erase him from existence, as some of his former contemporaries would have done. He could have. He could have let that body that was failing anyway die. It would not have taken much. All he had to do was wait. The pacemaker had bought the man about a week, but the TARDIS appearing and the trips in it—that had pushed his time down to maybe a day, which the Doctor then shortened again by putting the heart into its proper rhythm.

He could have killed him. Easily.

He didn't.

“He's half-alien?” Miller said. She looked like she was torn, and then she did start laughing. “Oh, now that... Well, they called him Shitface because he looked like shit, but some of the others said he wasn't even human... I guess they were right.”

Hardy grunted, pushing himself off of the table. “Said I was heartless, too, didn't they?”

Miller stopped laughing. “Oh, god, you've got two of them now. What the hell? How is that possible?”

“Science,” the Doctor said, and Miller gave him a glare. “Though if you want to know more than that... I think we have to ask someone else.”

“What?”

He turned to Sarah Jane. “That explanation is overdue. And you have no more excuses left—he's not in danger of dying this time, the TARDIS hasn't hijacked us again, and now—now I would very much like to know the truth.”

Sarah Jane swallowed. “I... I can't. You told me not to tell you. _Never_ to tell you.”

He shook his head. “No. I didn't.”

“Yes,” she insisted. “You did.”

“No. I didn't—even if it was some other version of me, I don't remember doing it. I never did what you're talking about. I never saw you after I left you in Croydon—”

“Aberdeen,” Sarah Jane corrected, annoyed. “And you did. Maybe you don't remember it because you haven't actually lived it yet. Maybe that's still in your future—that's the trouble with time travelers. It's impossible to know where events in respective timelines intersect. Or maybe you made yourself forget. I don't know.”

“What is he supposed to have forgotten?” Hardy demanded. “How the hell do you know him?”

She took a deep breath. “Do you remember me telling you that before I met your father, I traveled for a time with a very special man?”

Hardy snorted. “Like either of us could ever forget that.”

“The Doctor was that man.”

Hardy looked between the two of them. “No. That's not possible. He's younger than I am.”

“Time traveler,” the Doctor said. “And a Time Lord. An alien. I happen to be... oh, somewhere over nine hundred years old, me. I think.”

“He is insane,” Miller hissed. “That's not possible.”

Hardy said nothing. Two hearts beating in him, that had to say that part of this was true. Or maybe it didn't, but it might make it difficult to think for someone not used to the idea. It was difficult to know, but then the Doctor wasn't exactly sure he liked where these revelations were going, either.

“Hardy... he's your son, yeah?” Rose asked Sarah Jane, swallowing down the gag reflex that had her choking on her words. “And you raised him, but... he wasn't your husband's son, was he?”

“Stuart Hardy was the only father Alec knew, though he wasn't a great one,” Sarah Jane said, wincing. She turned to the Doctor. “I _did_ try to move on. I just... there was a part of me that never got over it. Over you, over traveling with you and the wonderful things I saw. I could never give Stuart all my heart, and he resented it. Resented the boy, too.”

“I'm so sorry,” Rose told her, and she might have hugged her if Sarah Jane hadn't pulled away from her. “Sarah Jane—”

“I raised Alec as my own. I gave him everything I thought he needed—a home, a family, a brilliant life—and he is so smart, don't think he isn't, not for one second,” Sarah Jane said. “He is the greatest thing I have ever done, and I say that after traveling with you, Doctor.”

The Doctor gave her a sad smile. Of course she'd say that. Parenting was supposed to be an adventure, after all.

Then she took a breath and let it out. “Only he is not my son. He's yours.”


	9. Time for Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sarah Jane has a son.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So some of this will be familiar as they were snippet flashbacks before. Now they're fleshed out a bit.
> 
> And added to. I started out with Sarah Jane just explaining everything in a conversation and had that irritating nagging voice of my sixth grade English teacher (this happens often, sadly) telling me to "show, not tell."
> 
> Obviously, given Hardy's age, there could be books written to show him going from child to right before Broadchurch, and this barely skims the surface of that, but it should clear up a few things.

* * *

_The hybrid consumed his thoughts, pulling him in every sort of direction there was. He couldn't think except to worry and fret, to curse its existence even as he marveled at it. This was impossible, and yet it wasn't. Here was something that shouldn't exist, but it did, and with it came hope and possibilities and so many other strange things, feelings he had thought were long since gone._

_He did not know what he was going to do._

_He knew what he should do. That child should not exist. The solution was simple._

_He did not know that he could make himself do it._

* * *

_“Sarah Jane?”_

_She stared, not sure how to react. She'd seen the Doctor regenerate, but this wasn't either of the ones she'd known. He was young, thin as a rail, and tall. He seemed boyish, but that was only an illusion. It did not last, not when she could see the weight on his shoulders, the whole universe's, and the age in his eyes, the weariness._

_He was hurt, somewhere deep inside, wounded so badly she almost wished he hadn't come back. She wanted to turn away._

_She couldn't._

_“Doctor,” she said. “You've come back. What happened? You're—”_

_“I can't tell you,” the Doctor said. “Or... I shouldn't. I risk this timeline, which is fixed, has to be fixed, must be fixed. If it's not fixed, then none of this will work, and it has to, because if it doesn't, then it won't survive, and that... Oh, that I can't accept. I've tried. I tried to make myself believe I could, but I can't. I have come to ask something terrible of you, and if you never forgive me for this, I won't blame you. You'd be right to do so.”_

_“I don't understand,” she said, and he turned back into the TARDIS. He stepped out afterward, carrying a bundle in his arms. She recognized it, not sure how anyone could mistake a swaddled baby for anything other than what it was._

_“This... is a hybrid,” the Doctor said, stopping close to her. She could see a little face in among the blanket. “Two species mixed in one that were never meant to be merged.”_

_She frowned. “Two species... I don't understand. It looks human.”_

_“And that might just save it,” the Doctor told her. “If anyone knew that it was part Time Lord, though, it wouldn't. This child... It...”_

_Somehow she knew this baby was his. That hurt in ways she couldn't begin to think about. She hadn't actually voiced what she felt to herself, that she was in love with the Doctor. The idea seemed daft, and keeping silent had to be the right choice. He clearly didn't feel the same, having a child with someone else._

_And yet she wasn't angry with the child. She couldn't blame it for what the Doctor had done, for choosing someone else. If that was even what happened. She supposed she didn't know._

_“This is amazing,” she said, touching a finger to the child's cheek. The smile on her face was wide and beautiful, so full of amazement. She didn't even know that she cared about anything other that this was the Doctor's child. “How is it possible?”_

_“That's the thing,” he said, no wonder in his voice, just pain and disappointment. “It shouldn't be.”_

_She turned back to frown at him. How could he say that? A child was not—oh, she knew many of them could be called accidents, but even accidents could be blessings.“You're not going to say that this is somehow a mistake, are you? That this child, this_ life _should not exist?”_

_“Technically speaking, it shouldn't,” he said, and she almost reached over to hit him. How could he stand there and tell her that this child should die? Oh, she knew what women's rights said, but the baby had been born. It was alive. He was holding a living, breathing child that had not harmed anyone. He couldn't kill it. “That doesn't make it any less at risk. And it will be at risk until the day it dies.”_

_She winced, her eyes on the child. Innocence was all over that face, that small, miraculous face, and she could not comprehend anyone wanting to harm it, but the universe was full of the ugly as well as the incredible. The darker places—people—would want this child gone._

_“You won't let that happen,” Sarah Jane said, convinced of that. She knew that he wouldn't. She wasn't sure how she had gone from fearing he'd harm it to knowing he wouldn't so quickly, but she didn't care. Her Doctor would not let anything happen to this child._

_“No. That is why I came to you.”_

* * *

_“I remember a neighbor,” Sarah Jane said, holding the child in her arms and wondering how she would ever let it go. Let him go, she corrected herself. She had the Doctor's son in her arms, and though she might have hoped that she would be the one to create him, this hybrid, she didn't care that she wasn't. She was holding a miracle in her arms. An impossible child. “She was a teacher. Loved children. All of them. She wanted to have a big family. She was always saying... She would say many things, but the one I remember best... children are the most precious gift in the universe.”_

_Distracted, he didn't respond at first. She didn't know what he was thinking. She wasn't sure she should know. This Doctor was different from hers in more than looks. That weight was bearing down on him, and he seemed close to breaking._

_“He's beautiful,” she said, looking into the baby's eyes. She swore he saw her like an adult would, with understanding far beyond his age. He was perfect. She couldn't see any flaws in him, which she knew was foolish, but she couldn't help it. This child was impressive, and yet he was such an ordinary thing, so small and helpless even if he shared his father's eyes._

_The Doctor turned back to her, finally seeing her again._

_“Will you take him?”_

_“What?”_

_“Your timeline is fixed,” the Doctor said. “Or... I think it is. You told me that you—well, that isn't something I should say. Still, I think—I know the child needs someone to care for it. Someone to protect it. Someone who will watch over it and guide it.”_

_“A mother?” Sarah Jane shook her head. “Why not a father?”_

_The Doctor shook his head. “I have so many enemies. If anyone of them knew, even just one, it would be his death. Or mine, and before my time, even. If they were to learn about it and use the child against one of my past incarnations—oh, the paradox that would unleash. I'd be better off killing it if I were to do that and—”_

_“No,” Sarah Jane said. “You will not murder this child.”_

_He looked at her, pained. “You know that's not what I want. I want you to take him. To keep him safe. If he's here, with you, he'll be able to have a life. A brilliant life. Both of you can have one.”_

_“You want me... to raise him as my own?” Sarah Jane asked, frowning at him. “Why would—”_

_“You can't wait for me. I can't come back for you. I know that I hurt you, and I know that this doesn't make anything right, not what I've done. I didn't think about it, leaving you behind. I didn't know how hard it would be for you. I didn't want to.”_

_Sarah Jane stared at him. “What are you saying? You mean—”_

_“I didn't come back. I left you. You spent the rest of your life waiting for me, and I never came back,” he told her, and she gasped. “So don't. Don't do it. Don't wait. Find a good life. A great life. A fantastic life.”_

_“With your son? Raising him as my own?”_

_“Yes. No. I don't—you don't have to raise him. Just... watch over him. Check in on him, make sure he's doing well, that he's living, that it's a good life, that he doesn't fall into the hands of my enemies. You have K-9. He can help. And if you want something more than that—”_

_“I can't believe you want me to do this.”_

_The Doctor's face fell. She'd wounded him by those words. “Are you saying you won't do it?”_

_“I am saying you can't have thought this through. If you had, you'd realize you were wrong. There must be some alternative, and you cannot possibly have ruled them all out already. Aren't you the one that always says the universe is infinite? How is there not another way?”_

_“Because there isn't.”_

_“I think you're saying that because it's what you want to believe. It isn't actually true.”_

_“It is,” he said. “Every other path ends in that child's death. I can't... I've... I've done horrible things, and this... I don't want this to be one of them.”_

_Sarah Jane shifted the baby in her arms. She already couldn't imagine giving it to anyone, not even back to him. She couldn't let it go. “Does he have a name?”_

_“No. I can't—I couldn't let myself get attached. I can't name it. I can't. You... you can watch over it, but I can't.”_

_“Will you ever see it again?” Sarah Jane asked, and he frowned at her. She knew he'd already said it, already given the answer, but she still persisted. “The hybrid, I mean.”_

_“No.”_

_If she took on the Doctor's child, she'd never see him again. Though—he'd said she wouldn't see him again anyway. He'd said she lived a life pining for him. That her path was fixed. She was not meant to see him again._

_The child wouldn't, either. This baby would never know his father. “Why not?”_

_“Only way to keep it safe. Can't let anyone know it exists. By losing the child through time, I can give it a chance to live. Otherwise... all it would ever know was death. Its own—after everyone who cared for it,” he said. “That's not life. That's not... It's not anything, actually.”_

_“Still,” she said, cradling the baby in her arms, “is that enough? Not for it, but for you. All these sacrifices, everything you've done—once again you come away with nothing, and for what? The greater good? Is that what this is?”_

_“Oh, no. This is me being selfish. So very selfish...”_

* * *

_“That's a handsome fellow.”_

_Sarah looked up from the child in her arms. She had been staring at him again, but that wasn't hard to do. She could get lost in this child's eyes, forgetting everything but the joy she'd taken on. She still had to make arrangements to get back to Croydon, and she knew that was going to be somewhat unpleasant, as the Doctor had messed up the date he returned her as well as the location. In a way, it was convenient. She had been gone long enough to have a child._

_She touched the baby's face again. “He is.”_

_“What's his name?”_

_Sarah Jane considered that for a moment. The Doctor hadn't named the baby, or at least he'd claimed that he couldn't. She wasn't sure she believed that, but even if he had given the boy a name, it would have been like his, one that couldn't be shared or one that was more of a title. The boy would need a better one, a human one, if he was going to live the fantastic normal life the Doctor wanted him to have._

_“Alec,” she said, having always liked it, and really, what could be more fitting than that for a son of the Doctor? The name was short for Alexander, and that meant defender of mankind. All and all, perfect._

_Not that the child agreed. He made a face like the name was the worst he'd ever heard. Her new friend laughed._

_“You sure about that?” he asked, his voice a rather charming brogue. She looked up at him with a smile. “And do I dare ask for yours?”_

_“Sarah Jane Smith,” she said, holding out a hand under Alec to shake his hand. “And you?”_

_“Stuart Hardy,” he said, giving her pinky a bit of a shake. They both laughed, though Alec remained unamused. “If... if you don't mind me asking, where's his father?”_

_“Gone,” Sarah Jane answered. The truth was not something anyone could ever know, but gone worked to sum up the situation._

_“I'm sorry,” he told her. “Would you like some coffee? No, tea. Suppose you shouldn't have coffee. Bad for the baby. Oh, look at me. I'm rubbish at this.”_

_She shook her head. “Not at all. And I'd love a cup.”_

* * *

_“Alec?” Sarah Jane called, looking around the house. Stuart was out working, which was some small mercy considering the row they'd had this morning before breakfast. She didn't know why that always seemed to happen. He could be the sweetest man, and he loved her dearly. She loved him back, with everything she had that wasn't the Doctor's._

_Or his son's._

_With a sinking feeling, she rushed up the stairs, running all the way to the door at the end of the hall. She really hoped he wasn't rewiring K-9 again. Last time he'd fixed him, but if he got it in his head to upgrade him, they'd really be in trouble._

_“Alec?” she asked, pushing the door open. She flinched when she saw the mess strewn across the floor. “Please tell me that is not the telly your father just bought.”_

_Alec shrugged, picking up a piece and turning it over in his hand. He threw it to the side, shaking his head. His puttering always reminded her of his father—the Doctor—and she had to keep herself from saying it again. Alec didn't know any father besides Stuart, and that was how she had to keep it._

_“Master,” K-9 said, nudging a component closer to the boy. Alec picked it up with a smile, and Sarah Jane had the feeling whatever it had been, it wouldn't be anything like it when he was done. She'd be proud of him, as usual, but Stuart would be angry._

_“You know you're not supposed to take things apart without asking.”_

_Alec was rather unapologetic when he looked up at her. “I needed the parts.”_

_“Darling,” she said, kneeling next to him. “You know you can't do this. Not only did you need permission to take things apart, but we've talked about this. You're supposed to be in school.”_

_Alec grunted. She put her hand over his._

_“I know you hate school, and you are so far ahead of where you should be...” Sarah Jane winced. She needed to stop holding him back, but if she didn't, then everyone would know just how special he was. His mind was gifted well beyond his age, and she could not love that more, but it was dangerous, too. So dangerous. She wasn't sure the Doctor understood what he'd done in asking for a normal human life for his half-human son. “You don't know everything yet. There's still more to learn.”_

_He grimaced. K-9 bumped him with his head, so attuned to his moods for a robotic dog. Alec leaned his head against him, holding on tight. “The other kids hate me. Even the teachers hate me. I don't want to go back.”_

_Sarah Jane winced. She knew Alec had difficulty relating to other people. The Doctor could be a grumpy curmudgeon, and it worked because he was a time traveling alien. His son was supposedly human and ordinary. His direct, highly intellectual manner came off as rude and condescending, alienating him from his peers—from everyone, including Stuart half the time._

_“How about we find a school with a curriculum that's more of a challenge for you?” she asked, reaching over to touch his face._

_“Won't change anything. K-9 will still be the only friend I have.”_

_“Not forever. Someone will see past your bark and realize you haven't got a bite,” she said, and he gave her another dark look. “What if we—”_

_“Mistress, there are several creatures approaching the building of non-terrestrial origin,” K-9 reported. She tensed, not sure how they'd found them. “Sensors indicate they are heavily armed.”_

_“No, no, this cannot be happening. He's only a child. How did they find him?”_

_Alec frowned. “They're after me? What did I do?”_

_“Oh, nothing,” she said, unable to tell him it was his very existence that was the problem. “Actually, it's probably K-9. I did tell you I got him from an alien, didn't I?”_

_“Only a hundred times,” Alec muttered. “So... how do we stop those aliens from taking our dog?”_

_For some reason, when she took his hand to run, she found herself smiling._


	10. Time for an Exchange

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sarah Jane explains a few things, and the need to address another part of Time Lord physiology is raised.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have reasons for why the Doctor reacts differently than in the Doctor's Daughter episode, which I could detail, and I'm sure that would be about as boring as me talking about my cat. I'll stick to the main parts, namely that this is a Doctor before the battle of Canary Wharf, which did so much damage to him, and that even though the circumstances of the hybrid's existence aren't clear, Hardy is clearly not a part of a war machine. (And, well, he's ginger in the sunlight. That counts for something, doesn't it?)

* * *

_“So you did it.”_

_“I did.”_

_“Any regrets?”_

_“A lifetime of them.”_

* * *

“Mine,” the Doctor repeated, sounding a bit shocked, though how he could be shocked, Rose didn't know since she'd figured that Hardy was the Doctor's son back when she first saw Sarah Jane with him. That was the answer that made sense, though the Doctor had tried to ignore it, working on his theory that Hardy and his daughter—oh, hell, the Doctor was a _grandfather_ —were alien imposters. No, he hadn't wanted to see what was right in front of him, but it was true.

Hardy was his son.

“Yes.”

The Doctor shook his head. “No. I mean, yes, I can see he has Time Lord DNA—that's very hard to miss, it is, but he can't—he has to be your son. It has to have been... well, to have been something that occurred in the past.”

Sarah Jane shook her head. “I'm sorry. I won't deny that there was a part of me that wishes it was like that, a part of me that thought it was true for a bit, after I found myself in Aberdeen...”

She winced, and Rose did not envy her that kind of pain.

“Then how did you end up with Hardy, then?” Rose asked, wondering if she was sparing the other woman or if it was just her own discomfort she was avoiding by speeding the conversation along. “If he's not yours—”

“He—you—The Doctor came to me,” Sarah Jane said. “That face. This regeneration. I'd just been dumped in Aberdeen, and I wasn't happy about it. Trying to arrange a way back to Croydon wasn't easy, and I wasn't sure how I'd manage it when the TARDIS appeared in front of me. I rushed to ask you questions, wanted you to tell me everything, and then... it wasn't the you I knew.”

The Doctor frowned. “When we met in that school, you didn't recognize me. You spoke to me as though I was a stranger.”

Sarah Jane shook her head, smiling that time. “You looked just like Alec, and if there was anything I knew by then, it was not to give any sign I knew him when he was working undercover.”

“You worked undercover?” Miller asked. “As what, the grumpiest wanker in Britain?”

Hardy gave her a look. “As if being grumpy is my only talent.”

“Were you ever under as an escort?” Rose asked, unable to help herself. She got looks from everyone. “Oh, please. Madame du Pompadour was all over you—”

“Oi!”

“—and you look alike, so I don't think it's as impossible as all that,” Rose said, grinning. She saw the look on Miller's face, but also the one on Hardy's. “You were! Oh, that is too good. I wish Mickey was here for this. Or Jack. Jack would _love_ this.”

“Focus, Rose,” the Doctor said. “Sarah Jane, you say that I came to find you in Aberdeen—”

“Which I learned later was after we met again at that school, though I can't tell you how long after. All I know is that you came, and you had a child with you. You called him a hybrid, said he was at risk, that if anyone knew of his existence, he wouldn't live to see his first year. You'd... You'd made up your mind to lose him in time so that he could have a life, and you wanted me to watch over him. And I did,” Sarah Jane looked over at Hardy with a fond smile. “I never regretted it. Not for a second.”

“Soppy,” Hardy said, but he seemed to be close to smiling back at her.

“I know.”

“So, wait,” Miller said, holding up a hand. “If—and this is a big if because I'm not sure I believe this at all—that one being his father—that's not possible—you're not his mother, then... who is?”

Sarah Jane shook her head. “He never told me. Never once mentioned who the mother was.”

Rose felt her stomach twisting it up inside her. She swallowed, not sure she was able to ask what she wanted to ask. She'd told the Doctor she'd stay with him forever, but what if she was still fated to be dumped in Croydon and left alone like Sarah Jane? Would he give _her_ a child to raise, too?

“I did wonder, just a little, when I met you at the school,” Sarah Jane began. “If it was you.”

“Me?” Rose's voice squeaked. “But I... He and I... we haven't ever... it's not like...”

“Those are your parents?” Miller asked. “Those two right there are your parents? That's... just...”

“Impossible,” Rose said. “Isn't it, Doctor? Because... wouldn't that me we _have_ to? Or is that a paradox? Or is it not me and someone else that you have to—”

“You are all assuming that there was mother involved,” the Doctor said. He frowned when everyone looked at him. “What? It's not as if there aren't dozens of ways that a child could be created without sexual reproduction. You act like that's all humans know, but it shouldn't be so hard to imagine. In vitro fertilization. It happens on a daily basis on your planet. And that is far from the only way. There's cloning, of course, you've heard of that. And I can cite dozens of other asexual forms of reproduction. My own people used Looms.”

“Looms?” Rose asked, not sure what that could possibly mean.

“Hmm,” the Doctor said. “Weaving together bits of DNA and creating new life. Complex process. Very complex.”

“Imagine you being woven on some giant space loom,” Miller said, nudging Hardy with her elbow. “Would that make you a scarf, a blanket, or a jumper?”

“Don't care so long as you weren't the one that made it,” Hardy muttered. “Then it would be some hideous color like that orange monstrosity of yours.”

“Oi,” she said. “There's nothing wrong with my coat.”

“There is,” Hardy said with a conviction that no one seemed willing to argue with. Rose bit back a smile, though she was still weirded out by the idea of the Doctor having a son he abandoned to time. And Sarah Jane.

“So, wait, why exactly did you lose him in time?”

* * *

“Your mother hasn't come back from the beach?” Beth asked, and Tom shook his head. Daisy wished that he wouldn't go around telling everyone everything—how was it a copper's son didn't know what discretion was? Her own father had drummed it into her when she was still very small. Of course, her father was different from Tom's mum. She'd always known her father had secrets. Her gran had secrets. Secrets were as much a part of being a Hardy as their blood.

“No, and she said she would be fifteen minutes. It was still light out when they left.”

“We just need someone to watch Fred while we go down to the beach and make sure they're just... distracted,” Daisy said, and Beth looked over at her, frowning. Daisy thought about the way her father had been with Miller and doubted that she could convince them that it wasn't a case or something worse. Some kind of emergency. She didn't want anyone else nosing in, but she wasn't going to be able to cover it up by claiming the impossible—that her dad and Tom's mum had gotten lost in a romantic moment. “If Dad had to go to the hospital again, he wouldn't want me knowing. He keeps thinking that's a protection.”

Beth shook her head. “It isn't.”

“Can you watch Fred so we can check the beach?” Daisy asked, swallowing. “Dad's not answering, Gran's not answering, and his mum's not answering, which means... well, it's probably my dad. He's back in the hospital or something, but I won't be sure without checking the beach first.”

“The beach,” Beth repeated. “Where Danny's body was found. That beach?”

“He said he lost his wallet,” Tom said, “and Mum was just supposed to give him a ride back to look for it. She's been gone half the night now.”

Beth turned to Mark. “Take Fred.”

“Beth, if something happened out there, they'd need me more than you and—”

“If he's in the hospital, they need me,” she said. “Lizzie's just been fed; she'll be fine. Take Fred, see if you can get him back to sleep. I'm taking them to the beach, and I'll ring you when I know anything.”

“I don't like this,” he told her. “I should go. What if it's not Hardy's heart? What if it's... well, you know? What then? What are you going to do?”

“You mean, what if it's my dad?” Tom asked. “You think he came back? That he took Mum or hurt her? He wouldn't do that. Would he?”

Daisy gave him a sympathetic look. She used to think her mum would never cheat on her father and mess up a case, but she had, so she couldn't offer him any comfort. Especially not now that Mark's words had her afraid for an entirely _different_ reason.

* * *

“I don't know why he was lost in time,” the Doctor said. “Though, technically, he wasn't. He had a normal timeline and progression, same as any human would. He followed Sarah Jane's path. That's not lost. She's traceable. And, yes, I know it was somewhat unforgivable of me not to find her again, but there were some extenuating circumstances—we really shouldn't discuss what happened in my sixth form or the Valeyard—that was not a good time for me, and that's not even close to what happened when I was in the Time War which really should never be discussed, ever, but then we get back to the idea that Sarah Jane was always meant to walk a linear path after parting with my fourth regeneration and that was one I learned about in this one which is a bit timey-wimey, but without that sort of fixed path to put the child on... I suppose I might have been forced to abandon it without any kind of protection at all, just dumped in an orphanage or something. Oh, now that would have been a bad plan. Think I'd have been better off killing it if that was the only option, since I couldn't know who or what might get their hands on it, and if they were to—”

“Doctor,” Rose said, her voice sounding like she might be sick, and Sarah Jane looked pained. Miller looked angry, the sort of anger that was righteous and just and so motherly, not unlike Jackie Tyler. Hardy seemed to be the only one capable of taking his realistic assessment of the situation with any kind of calm, which was slightly odd since he was the child in question, but then he was also part Time Lord and a detective inspector.

“Mainly my point was that he wasn't lost. He was with Sarah Jane. It was a good life.”

Hardy snorted, but then he frowned. “No, you're right. Don't think I'd have wanted to be with you.”

“Why not?” the Doctor couldn't help asking. “There's the TARDIS, bigger on the inside, capable of making any sort of room you like, and the whole of time and space at your beckon and call—”

“And nearly every alien in the universe wanting me dead,” Hardy finished, arms folded over his chest. “Convenient of you to forget that.”

“Oi,” the Doctor protested. “Not every planet has a standing kill order for me. There's only about fifty of those and—well, no, I see your point, but that's not all that's out there. I have seen the most incredible moments in time. I've saved worlds. Lost worlds, too, but there is so much out there that I could never picture sitting still in one place. Not me. Did get stuck on Earth for a while. Still managed to have my share of adventures, but I admit it chafed and I rather hated my fellow Time Lords for that—wait, sorry, we're off topic again.”

“You were supposed to be saying why you'd hide your own child in time,” Rose reminded him. She held up a hand. “And no, you don't have to remind us that you have no memory of doing it or that it could still be in the future. We're aware of that.”

He gave her a look. “Fine, but since you seem to want me to speculate—well, it is as he said. I do have enemies. I have more than I care to think about, seeing as I have this habit of—I suppose it's not too much to say that I save the world. Multiple worlds. That means I make enemies of dictators and megalomaniacs and even some strangely colored fruit—”

“Fruit?” Miller asked, shaking her head in disbelief.

“That's what you pick up on?” Hardy asked, and she glared at him, mouthing something about a knob.

“So that means that, yes, there are an unfortunate number of individuals and entire species who would like to harm me in any way possible, including using any progeny I might have against me,” the Doctor said. “In certain hands, that's even more dangerous than it sounds on the surface. The kinds of things they'd try, the possible paradoxes... I couldn't allow that to happen.”

“Isn't it still an issue, though? He might be grown now, have a life and kids of his own, but he's still at risk because he's your son and part Time Lord.”

“Part Time Lord seems so wrong. Part time? No, no, we need a better term for it. Ooh, I have one. It's brilliant. He's a Time _demi_ -Lord,” the Doctor said, and they all looked at him. “What? You expect to go about calling him a half-human half-Time Lord hybrid all the time? I've got a gob, but that's a mouthful even for me.”

“Wait. If he's half-human, doesn't that mean for sure he had a human mother?”

“'Course he did,” the Doctor said, pointing to Sarah Jane. “And no, all the same time. If he was created in some kind of experimental way, supplemental DNA would have been necessary to create a new lifeform. Just because my species did it asexually doesn't mean that it didn't involve multiple sources of genetic material.”

“Oh, that was an image I did _not_ need,” Miller said, grimacing. “No one ask why a human. I don't want to know.”

“Relatively similar base genetics,” the Doctor said. “It doesn't have to be disturbing. It's not like I'm not humanoid in appearance. I can pass for human, frequently do, and so there is some measure of similarity there. That's all. It's a pretty safe base for mixing about—”

“Stop it. Just... stop it.”

“You've dealt with child murderers and pedophiles, and you get a bit tripped up by common genetic material?” Hardy asked her.

“You are such a wanker.”

“And that would be an image I did not need,” the Doctor said, hearing Rose giggle. Sarah Jane seemed torn between amusement and that familiar discomfort, a mother not really keen to know what her son got up to in that respect, same as this father didn't need to think about his son doing that. “Let's just do another scan here, see if your recovery is proceeding nicely before we return to the TARDIS. One quick—wait. What's wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“I have advanced senses, a sonic screwdriver, and a whole bunch of medical machines all about that say otherwise,” the Doctor told him, well aware that something was bothering the Time demi-Lord. “Oh, of course. I should have thought of it before. I hadn't even noticed it—should have done, but having you there isn't like having one of the other Time Lords. Doesn't bother me. Feels strange, after all this time without it, mind you, but a good strange. Not so much for you, though. Bit of a headache, I'd imagine. Sorry about that. We should probably set you up with some rudimentary psychic barriers. Well, you should have a lot more than that, but at least the basic shields would help.”

Miller stared at him. “You're a psychic?”

“No. I'm not, and he's not either. Time Lords are telepathically linked, though. It was so quiet after Gallifrey...” The Doctor winced, closing his eyes. “Not that it's loud now, but it's still an adjustment. So, let's put a few little roadblocks in place, and that headache will fade.”

“I think I'd rather take some aspirin.”

“Um,” Rose began. “Won't that kill you? Being a Time demi-Lord, after all.”

Hardy looked over at Sarah Jane. “I see that's another thing you failed to mention.”

She bit her lip. “You did know you were allergic to it. You just... didn't know why.”

* * *

“Are you angry?” Ellie asked, and Hardy looked at her. Something had distracted the Doctor, and he was off on some tangent she'd chosen not to bother trying to follow this time, since she was still struggling to understand and accept everything she'd seen so far today. “You told me to stoke the anger, boil it over, when you wanted to get Claire and Lee. And you said you'd been angry since that trial fell apart. Are you going to say you're not mad now? Not furious with her for keeping all of this from you?”

“Aliens tried to kill me when I was six years old, and I still wouldn't have believed her if she told me I was one,” Hardy answered. “Didn't want to. For all that my father—her husband—and I never got on, one thing we did agree on was how the world worked.”

“You didn't believe in anything out of the ordinary after aliens tried to kill you as a child?”

“I made a choice. Chose not to follow the extraordinary. I'd already found that the ordinary was horrifying enough. Or have you forgotten how you felt investigating Danny Latimer's death?”

She shivered. No, she hadn't. She never would. Even if the killer hadn't turned out to be her husband, she'd never get over that. “So you're really not angry about this?”

“Who am I supposed to be angry with? The woman who raised me, the only mother I've ever known, who almost died protecting me more than I want to think about? The man who is apparently my father only he didn't know it and I didn't know it? Who gave me to my mother to keep me safe? The father I did have who was so stuck in his ways and unwilling to share he made my life a misery and drank himself to death? The universe for my existence as this half-alien freak? Or myself, for being what I am? Not a lot of appealing choices there, though the one I'll admit I'm still mad at. That hasn't changed.”

Ellie nodded, though she still expected more of a rage from him. “It hasn't actually hit you yet, has it? All of this—you're still in shock. Numb. Haven't processed it.”

He gave her a look.

“And we're ready,” the Doctor announced in triumph. “Not that we weren't necessarily before, but someone asked me and I'm afraid I got quite sidetracked. Shouldn't mention bananas, really, but then that's a pity all around because bananas are incredible and—were you two fighting again?”

Hardy shrugged. “It's not really fighting. Not even bickering. Miller quite thrives on it.”

“What?”

“Takes conflict to bring the best out of her,” Hardy said, and Ellie wanted to smack him. “And then she reaches her true potential.”

The Doctor looked her over. “I have this strange feeling like I should know a woman like that. Suppose I've met plenty, but that's no matter. Are you ready?”

“Is it necessary?” Ellie heard herself ask. Hardy glanced toward her. She shrugged. “You want to take advice about these psychic barriers you supposedly need from a man who got lost in a tirade about bananas?”

“Don't get him started on pears,” Rose advised, and the Doctor shuddered.

“Just get it over with,” Hardy said. “Now.”

The Doctor nodded. He stepped forward, putting his hands on Hardy's face. “Try and stay calm. This will be a bit different and—oh, I see. You've some experience with telepaths, have you? Ooh, now that is—Sarah Jane, we are going to have a long talk when this is over—”

“It burns,” Hardy whispered, and Ellie thought he would pull away from the Doctor. She almost did it herself, yanked him free. If that Doctor was burning his mind, then he had to be stopped.

“I am sorry,” the Doctor said, pulling back. “So, so sorry...”

Hardy looked at him. “Is it done?”

“What, that's it? Just... is it done?” Ellie asked. “Didn't he just hurt you and you should be angry and knocking him about or something?”

“I didn't hurt him. Not physically, at least,” the Doctor said. He gave Hardy a look of pity. “Should have made sure the door was shut better. Goes both ways, but I tend to forget that, seeing as how most of the time the other person isn't capable of walking through them and it is rather disconcerting when they do—”

“Oh, shut it,” Hardy muttered. “I'm not going to run in horror because of what you did. You think you're the only one who has ever made an impossible choice?”

The Doctor frowned. “Of course not.”

Hardy kept watching him. “Or is it you can't forgive yourself so you wouldn't expect anyone else to? That you believed no one would understand what you did or why? For someone who thinks humans are brilliant, you don't give us much credit.”

“You,” the Doctor said, a bit choked up, “are more than human.”

He wrapped his arms around Hardy, who stood still in the embrace, awkward and uncomfortable, but the Doctor didn't seem to notice at all. Sarah Jane was crying, though she looked happy and proud even through her tears, like somehow this moment was one she'd waited for all her life.

“Ah, soppy,” Hardy muttered, sounding a bit annoyed. “Advanced species like yours and you're a complete soppy mess.”

“Oh, you're one to talk,” the Doctor said. “I've seen your mind, remember? You and Daisy—oh, Daisy. Beautiful thing. And ginger. My granddaughter is _ginger,_ Rose, isn't that marvelous?”

She nodded, though Ellie wasn't sure she was that pleased about it.

“Oh, my god. Tom. We have to get back. We must have scared the life out of him by now.”

“Not to worry,” the Doctor said. “Time ship. It'll be like we never left.”

“With your driving?”

“Oi!”


	11. Time for Returns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A moment from the past and everyone goes back to the beach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had this thought, and it wasn't a great one, but... Daisy's characterization could be blamed on her being, well, part Time Lord, right?
> 
> Still not a good excuse, I know.

* * *

_“You made the only choice you could.”_

_He nodded. No comfort, those words, though they were meant as such._

_“And it's done now. Can't be changed.”_

_“Nope.”_

_“Then it's all over.”_

_Another nod, though this one lacked conviction._

* * *

_The laser stopped firing, and Sarah Jane lifted her head, almost unwilling to look away from her little boy. He wouldn't fit that description for much longer, especially if more aliens came after them. His innocence would go faster than he was growing, and he was already up two sizes from the beginning of the year._

_Alec pushed past her, so brave and yet so young. “Is that all of them?”_

_K-9 bobbed his head. “Affirmative.”_

_“Dead aliens. In our yard.”_

_Sarah Jane looked down at her son, grimacing. He should never have had to see that, even if the actual shooting had been done by a robotic dog. K-9's lasers had been enough—this time—and they were all safe again._

_“Let's not tell your father.”_

_Alec laughed, and she hugged him close, still too aware that she might have lost him. She should have asked the Doctor for far more than K-9. She felt almost like she needed an army to keep Alec safe, and that terrified her. She had not thought she could love anyone as much as she loved the Doctor, but every day with her son made her realize that as special as that time had been, she was moving beyond it, beyond him, and she had a greater love to give—a mother's love._

_“They were kind of dumb,” Alec went on, shaking his head. She frowned. “They wanted K-9 but didn't come prepared to fight him.”_

_She swallowed. He was one step from connecting her lie, and that couldn't happen._

_“It wasn't K-9 they wanted, was it?”_

_Sarah Jane winced. “Alec—”_

_“They wanted you.”_

_She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Oh, thank goodness. She didn't want him knowing that he was the real target. He was only a boy, and he deserved to live without all of that fear. “Maybe, darling, though it was probably easier for them to track K-9.”_

_“Does that mean we have to disable him?”_

_The panic in Alec's voice broke her heart. That daft metal dog was all her son had, and she would not let him lose it. She knelt down in front of him, putting her hand on his cheek. “It may not be safe to leave K-9 on, but he also saved our lives. I don't know. I think we might be safer with him than without, don't you?”_

_He nodded, and she could tell he was fighting tears. He'd been so broken by just the idea of losing K-9. Sarah Jane had to do something about his social skills. The boy needed friends, not just a robotic dog for company._

_“Now, we are going to need to do something about those aliens before your father gets home.”_

_Alec's face was surprisingly innocent when he said, “You always wanted a garden, remember?”_

_“No, I didn't. I have never been that fond of—oh, I see what you mean. You are very clever, aren't you?” Sarah Jane asked, smiling at him._

_“Not as much as he's stupid,” Alec said. He turned to K-9. “How deep do we have to dig to make sure no one will find them? More than six feet?”_

_She shook her head as she watched her son walk away with the robotic dog. This was her life now, raising an impossible child and burying aliens in her yard._

_Somehow, she wouldn't trade it for the whole of time and space._

_Alec looked back at her. “Are you coming? Or are you going to cry and tell me how proud you are of me again?”_

_“Hate that so much, do you?”_

_“You got my shirt wet last time. Sopping wet.”_

_She had, she supposed, but Alec had stopped breathing after he'd been shot, and she had thought for sure it was over, and he was just so_ young. _She wanted to say he was still a baby, but he had outgrown that phase so quickly she'd lied to Stuart about his age, not that she was sure what that was, not entirely._

_She forced a smile. “I was just so glad you weren't hurt.”_

_He rolled his eyes. “Where's the shovel?”_

* * *

“You sure that thing won't kill him?” Miller asked, eying the TARDIS with suspicion. “You had to drag him to some hospital in the future—or at least you claimed it was the future—to fix him, but what happens when you start it up again?”

“Nothing. Well, no, there are a lot of things that happens when the TARDIS is in flight or in the vortex,” the Doctor said. “Still, as to the actual effect on the demi-Lord over there, should be next to none. You see, my people are... well, we have a sort of... symbiotic connection to our ships, and I already know that mine is fond of him, else we'd never have veered off course so I could fix him. Trust the old girl. She won't let anything happen to him now.”

Miller continued to stare at him, but Rose put her hands on her shoulders and gave them a squeeze. “He'll be fine. The Doctor's right. The TARDIS... she's kind of a part of him, and Hardy's a part of him, and they'll all look after each other.”

Miller snorted. “You have any idea what his idea of taking care of himself is?”

“Seems to me he could do with someone like you in his life to set him straight,” she said, and Miller frowned at her. “See, the way I figure it, for all their talk, Time Lords aren't meant to be alone. Sarah Jane says the Doctor likes an entourage. And Hardy, for all he thinks he needs to be alone and has pushed his mum and his daughter away—he still pulled you in, right?”

Miller stared at her. “I...”

“And we're going,” the Doctor said, opening the TARDIS doors with a dramatic clap of his hands. Rose looked over at him with a frown. “What? She's not so old she doesn't have a few tricks in her, and I actually feel—well, it's a bit strange for this body, since you said I was more of a bouncy castle than you were, hopping about like I do, but I feel lighter.”

“I think the TARDIS knew you needed this,” Sarah Jane said. “Just like she knew he needed you.”

The Doctor gave her a grin, pulling her in for a long, tight hug. “We still have to have a discussion about when he was seventeen, though.”

Sarah Jane winced. “Doctor—”

“Right, then,” the Doctor said, waving everyone inside. _“Allons-y._ We have some other unattended children to deal with, and if anyone gives them espresso and a free puppy—oh, now that could be a disaster. Is your daughter fond of coffee?”

“You're telling me an espresso could end the world?” Miller asked, and Rose grimaced, thinking that a satsuma had saved it once.

“You've met him,” Rose said, gesturing to the Doctor. “You think him on espresso is a good idea?”

“Bloody hell.”

“Oh, for Christ's sake,” Hardy muttered. “Daisy's had caffeine before. It's not the end of the world. Let's just get in there and get back before they notice we've gone.”

“Yeah, about that,” Rose began, having just now thought of it herself, though how she hadn't before she wasn't sure. The whole the Doctor having a son he lost in the time stream thing might have had something to do with it, though. “How exactly are you going to explain the two heart thing to her?”

Hardy grimaced, letting out a stream of curses that had her mum would have blushed at, and Jackie Tyler was no shrinking violet. “Great. Now I can never see my daughter again. Bloody fantastic, that is. Now what am I supposed to do?”

“Oh, really,” the Doctor muttered. “That's what you're worried about? I managed to fix your heart and restore your binary circulatory system, and you think I don't have a solution for that. Not, mind you, that you can keep this from her forever. I suppose the Time Lord blood in her is diluted enough to where it's not as obvious as yours is, leaving her childhood rather uninterrupted, unlike yours. Or is that because of Sarah Jane's involvement?”

“Don't you go blaming her,” Hardy said. “Technically, this is all your doing, isn't it?”

The Doctor grimaced. “Well, perhaps not, but then... I gave her K-9, too, and that could well have led them to you, whereas you have no advanced technology and a minimal time resonance. Mind you, your nature would be a little more obvious now that there's two hearts beating inside your chest, but there is a solution to that, as I already told you. Behold, your salvation.”

“You're giving your son a wedding ring?” Miller asked, shaking her head. “You do know he's divorced, right?”

“Yes, but this is not a wedding ring, this is a biodamper, and it will keep others from being aware of his status as a Time demi-Lord. Now shall we get aboard? I'm sure you want to get back to your children.”

He didn't wait for an answer, walking into the TARDIS. Sarah Jane was the first one in after him, no hesitation there, but Hardy had to prod Miller inside. Rose supposed it was a lot to take in, but she hoped that Miller wouldn't give up on Hardy. She did think he needed her, just like the Doctor needed Rose.

* * *

“Grab the torch,” Beth ordered, and Tom rushed to do as she asked. Daisy pulled on the door handle, already wishing that she'd never agreed to watch Fred or that she'd just left him with Tom and gone out on her own. Maybe even drug the baby along with her, but that was a last resort. She shouldn't feel this way, but she didn't want Beth hovering over her, telling her what to do.

She thought that she would rather look for her father on her own, especially since she had a feeling some _other_ family secret was a part of this. Could Gran have cheated on her husband? Was that why there was another version of her father? She'd already thought about that man being her uncle.

A younger uncle, so maybe it was after her grandfather died.

Her dad didn't talk about him much, so she didn't know that much about him. Gran spoke of him with a mixture of fondness and sadness. She did say that she'd wished things were different between them, and Daisy had always meant to ask her about it when her father wasn't around to interrupt them. He didn't like hearing about his father, and he was worse when Gran went on about how sweet he'd been when they met or how she'd loved him.

Daisy shook it off. She couldn't be worrying about her grandfather right now. He was dead, and her father could be missing or having another heart attack, so she should be worried about that.

“Right,” Beth said. “Five minutes, look over the beach, then we go.”

Daisy gave her a look, saying nothing. She wasn't going to keep taking orders from Beth. Tom could go back with her, but Daisy was going to find her father, and she didn't care to have anyone telling her how to do it.

She grimaced. She might need a ride to the hospital, though.

She sighed, following after Tom and Beth down to the beach. She didn't really need the torch to know that the place was abandoned at this hour. No one would be here now, not after dark. Not after the body was left here.

Beth shivered. “I almost wish I hadn't come. I keep thinking of him bringing my boy here in the middle of the night and no one seeing him... Just leaving his body there...”

“Didn't Susan Wright—wait, Elaine something or other—see him do it?” Daisy asked, and they both looked at her. She shrugged. “I read about my father's cases in the papers. It's impossible not to sometimes.”

“You saw that bit about him being the worst cop in Britain, then?” Tom asked, and she almost reached over and hit him.

Beth gave him a stern look. “That's not true. He... I... I would have said that more about your mum until a couple days ago.”

“She didn't know,” Tom said. “I didn't know. Even now...”

Daisy frowned, wondering if maybe Tom's dad was one of those impossible things her gran chased. Maybe that was why no one saw it before it was too late.

“I suppose we should check the hospital now,” Beth said, and Tom turned to leave, but Daisy couldn't make herself move.

“Something's wrong here,” she heard herself say, and she shivered before pointing her torch at the rocks by the cliff.

* * *

“And we're back,” the Doctor said, smiling in triumph. “Harbor cliff beach. Broadchurch. Dorset. England. In the year twenty-fifteen. Go on. Out with you. We've reached our destination.”

Hardy let the others shuffle out before making a move himself, placing himself in front of the Time Lord's path. He knew that his mother was possibly aware of what the Doctor was planning, but Miller and Rose might not be. He certainly was, though, and he wasn't going to let that man—his father—get away with it without saying something.

“And when, exactly, do you plan on wiping everyone's memories?”

The Doctor tensed. “I suppose I needn't ask how you know about that.”

Hardy almost laughed. No, there wasn't. He understood the way the other man thought, and it wasn't just because he was half Time Lord. He was a detective inspector, had been for years. He had made a career of being suspicious. “Why'd you let them out of the doors without doing it?”

“Oh, I suspect you could convince Miller she didn't see any of this. It's what she wants to believe already,” the Doctor said, rather dismissive. “As for you, it doesn't make sense to try and make you forget. You'd pull off the biodamper and ruin everything by discovering a second heart. No, you can't forget. And Sarah Jane already knows, has known all along. She did what she had to in order to protect the timelines and you. There is that thing when you were seventeen that I don't particularly agree with and need to discuss with her—”

“That was nothing to do with her,” Hardy snapped. “And it wasn't anything to do with aliens, either. It was—”

“What taught you that humans had enough monsters of their own and led you to your career in law enforcement,” the Doctor finished. “Yes, I know. Nevertheless—”

“You believe that whatever created me—whether it's you or some kind of experiment—is still in your future and that both you and Rose have to forget about it,” Hardy said. “Suppose if I cared about having you as a father I'd deck you for that.”

“Preserving the time line—”

“Bollocks,” Hardy interrupted. “It's a shit excuse, and you know it. You're scared of losing things, so you'd rather not know you had them to lose.”

“Oi, don't you get all self-righteous with me. I know how you treated your daughter and your mother when you were having heart problems, and I also know that you'd let Miller go without telling her how much you value her friendship.”

Hardy grunted. “We're not friends.”

The Doctor gave him a slight smile, a smug one. “Sure you're not.”

“Doctor!”

“Ah, I'm being summoned,” the Doctor said, pushing past him and down the ramp, and Hardy looked back at the beach with a grimace.

“It's the bloody middle of the night.”

“So it is,” the Doctor said. He shrugged. “Still, better a few hours than a few years, right?”

Hardy almost did hit him then, would have if he hadn't caught something on the air. He hated the air in Broadchurch, hated the sea, hated the people. Smiling people were always hiding something. Still, that scent... He knew it. He knew it too well, and it never was good.

“Blood.”

“Yes,” the Doctor said, “I smell it, too.”

“What?” Miller asked. “Don't tell me you've become a vampire, too.”

“Enhanced Time Lord senses,” the Doctor said. He shook his head. “Honestly. Vampires. Though, mind you—”

“Plasmavores.”

The Doctor grimaced. “Another thing to discuss with Sarah Jane. Exposing you to plasmavores. Really. And you. Honestly. Even if you're wrong about the myth, you know what it is, don't you? It's not like either of us exploded in the sun. Or even... twinkled.”

“I'd kill myself first,” Hardy said. “Daisy and I have a standing agreement about those books. She reads them, I disown her.”

The Doctor grinned, though he knew there was still a chance the girl had done it behind her father's back. “Come on, then, Miller. Time to find the source of that blood.”

“What is it with you and Miller? Both of you. Is it that hard to call me Ellie?”

“Ellie,” the Doctor said. “Hmm. I think I knew another Ellie. Is it short for Elanor or—”

“Oh, now see what you've started, Miller,” Hardy muttered, leaving them both behind to track down the scent still on the air. Cloying and thick, its source was nearby. He didn't like the odds of finding it alive, though.

He ran along the beach until he found it, not far from the recent cliff fall those reporters had insisted on photographing him by, and when he did, he swore for an entirely different reason. He lowered himself onto his knees, needing to check her pulse.

“Hardy, the next time you run off and—oh, god, no. Not Beth,” Miller said, starting to fall apart again as she had the first time he met her. “Please tell me this isn't happening.”


	12. Time to Search

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finding Beth is just the start of unraveling what is happening in Broadchurch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I tried to talk myself into only doing a section of Sarah Jane and Alec from his childhood instead of the short, vague flashbacks and found I didn't like it. I guess those stay in, though I keep being afraid I'll run out of them.
> 
> And I keep having the temptation to do spin offs when this isn't even done. What is that?

* * *

_“Do you think he'll be happy?”_

_“What?”_

_“The baby. Do you think he'll be happy?”_

_“The hybrid? Oh. I suppose so.”_

_“You suppose so?”_

_“I mean, yes. Of course he'll be happy. He's going to have the best life.”_

_“You're a terrible liar.”_

* * *

_Sarah Jane sold her first book, though the money was already spent. She didn't begrudge it, though she knew Stuart felt it was past time that Alec's purchases were curbed. Well, no, he believed they were things she bought, because he couldn't understand how Alec was buying all these devices—but he did seem to enjoy deriding her about her apparent inability to use any of them._

_Neither of those things were true. She knew how to use technology greater than any her husband would ever know, and she hadn't broken any of the things they had bought. No, her brilliant son had taken them apart and used them as something else, sometimes only for one part that he couldn't find in any other devices in this time period._

_That didn't stop him, though. He kept acquiring parts and building, showing himself to be as dedicated and obsessive as his father could be, his true father, that was. She knew the Doctor to be much like this, and she could see more and more the signs of him in her son._

_“Alec?” she asked, pushing his door open. “Darling, are you—oh.”_

_“It's not finished yet,” Alec said, not looking up from the pile of parts and K-9. “You shouldn't see it until it's done.”_

_“Is that a computer?” Sarah Jane asked, thinking she could finally know what it was he was building. “It looks rather like this one I saw on—”_

_“It's not just a computer. Computers are simple compared to it,” Alec said, and Sarah Jane bit her lip, thinking she was going to have to be careful what she said to her son from now on. He was on the verge of treating her as though she were some ignorant human, just like his father did at times._

_“Alec—”_

_“It's for you,” he told her, and she stared at him. “For your stories. Your research. It'll help you find all the aliens and everything you need to know. It will be better than any computer you could buy. It'll be everything you need.”_

_“Oh, sweetheart,” she said, going over to his side and hugging him. “You don't have to do this for me. You know that, don't you? I don't need anything more than you. I didn't understand that at first, but everything I've known with you has been beyond precious.”_

_Alec grunted. “Not precious.”_

_“Well, that's not—we can discuss word choice later,” she said. She touched his cheek. “I know you're very busy, but I've just sold my first book, and I've got a contract for four more, can you believe that? They think I'll be the leading name in science fiction for years to come.”_

_He smiled. “You have an advantage.”_

_“Shh,” she said, putting a finger to her lips and making them both laugh._

_“Did they make you use a pen name?”_

_“I chose to,” she said. “And not because they thought science fiction would come better from a man but because I want my work as a journalist to be separate and respected on its own merit. And because your father is entirely too practical for my fantasies.”_

_Alec shook his head. “Why are you even married to him?”_

_“What?”_

_“All you do is fight. He hates me. We have to lie to him all the time,” Alec said. “He's drinking more. And he tried to kick K-9 the other day. Said I was stupid for playing with baby toys.”_

_Sarah Jane shook her head. “Your father doesn't understand because he can't. He can't know so many things or he wouldn't be safe. He doesn't know that K-9 is alive. He doesn't know that you're as special and brilliant as you are. There are things he cannot know. That doesn't make him a bad man. In fact... why don't we go do something rather... ordinary?”_

_Alec frowned. “Ordinary?”_

_“A holiday,” she said. “There is a lovely bit of beach down in Dorset, and your father has never been out of Scotland. Neither have you. We should try it. There are fossils and we can camp and—”_

_“And you'll want me to leave K-9 behind.”_

_“Yes, this time, though when I sell more books, we can go somewhere else, and I'll make sure it's a place we can bring K-9. This time is for us as a family,” Sarah Jane said, trying not to wince at how that sounded. K-9 was family, too. “We can't leave your father out of everything.”_

_Alec snorted. “It sounds awful. What am I going to do at a beach?”_

_Sarah Jane laughed._

* * *

“I can tell you she's not dead,” the Doctor said, kneeling next to Beth. He held open an eye and ran his screwdriver thing over her. “Head wound. Nasty things, bleed a lot, very scary, but not necessarily fatal. In this case, it won't be. She might have been in trouble had we been any later and the tide came in and—”

“Shut it,” Hardy said, and Ellie looked at him, strangely grateful for his intervention. She didn't want to hear more than that. He looked up. “No way she fell or jumped. She wouldn't have survived it.”

“She's not that kind of person,” Ellie said, trying not to remember how this was so like that day they met and the conversation that they'd had over Danny's body. “She wouldn't do that. Even after Danny, she wouldn't. She's got Chloe and Lizzie, and she and Mark are trying to work things out.”

Hardy didn't even seem to be listening, back in full detective inspector mode like he had been that first day. Only the case mattered, not what she knew about the person themselves, only what evidence would tell him, not who the victim was.

“Blunt trauma to the head, jagged wound, likely a rock. Whoever did it was improvising,” Hardy said. “That thing tell you anything else?”

The Doctor nodded. “Embedded sand is the same as that of this beach—again, improvised—and it's looking like a severe concussion, but so far no sign of brain damage. She'll be all right.”

Ellie let out a breath, shaking. She felt Hardy's hand on her back, aware he was trying to comfort her now, though she didn't know that she wanted it. “Who would do this to Beth? What is she doing here? How could this have happened?”

“Doctor?” Rose called, and he waved them over to them. Sarah Jane followed after her, and Ellie grimaced, not wanting more people gawking at her friend.

“We need to get Beth to a hospital,” Ellie said. “Is it safe to move her?”

“Yes. Still...” The Doctor focused his screwdriver on the sand. “Another echo. Whatever was there was also here, very likely when it happened.”

“Echo?” Ellie repeated, not sure what he was talking about or why that mattered when Beth had been hurt.

“Resonance,” the Doctor said. “Something lingering here and over where the TARDIS seems keen to land, where the body of the boy was found. There's something here, and it echoes. That boy's death broke this town, didn't it?”

“In so many ways,” Ellie admitted, knowing she would never be the same. Joe. Her loving husband. The man she'd expected to grow old with. The perfect father. He'd been a killer. A monster, and she'd never seen it.

“Cardiff.”

She frowned, looking over at Hardy. “What does that got to do with anything?”

“What about Cardiff?” Rose asked, frowning as well.

“There's a rift in space and time there,” Sarah Jane said, shivering. “Don't look at me like that, Doctor. I never took him there, even though he did actually _want_ to go to Cardiff, unlike when he came here to Broadchurch. Give a boy with a mind like his a normal holiday and he hates every minute of it. Mention off hand that there's a crack in space and time and he pesters me for almost five years to go see it.”

Ellie put a hand to her head. “What has that got to do with anything?”

“Your husband, Miller. He came here from Cardiff.”

* * *

“I don't see what that has to do with anything,” Miller muttered. “Can you all stop standing around gaping about and help me get my friend to the hospital? I'm not letting Beth die while you go off on more alien nonsense—”

“Oi,” the Doctor said. “I am not nonsense. Alien, yes, standing right in front of you, and not a bit nonsense.”

Considering some of the things Rose had seen this regeneration do and heard him say, she wasn't so sure about that. Not that she'd tell him that, because even with the nonsense he did and left in his wake, he was brilliant and amazing. Then again, she did like teasing him. “Um, Doctor—”

“Not a word, Rose.”

“Can you track the temporal signals from the rift? If Joe Miller was in any way connected to it, then he'd be traceable,” Hardy said. “He'd be...”

“Alec?” Sarah Jane asked, concerned. “What is it? What's wrong?”

He put a hand to his head, gripping both sides of it like he was in pain. Rose frowned. Was this more to do with the resonance the Doctor kept finding? Was his son somehow more sensitive to it? Must be the barriers, right? The Doctor only put in a few to help Hardy cope, not enough, though. Not from what she could see.

“Daisy,” he whispered, and Sarah Jane stilled, pale in the low light.

“Your daughter?” Miller asked. “She's fine. She's at my house with the boys. They should all be asleep by now. Aren't they?”

“Alec has a strong connection to his daughter,” Sarah Jane said. “Used to drive Tess mad, how he always seemed to know what she needed more than her mother did.”

“Time demi-Lord,” the Doctor said, kneeling down next to his son. “What are you feeling, exactly? Pain? Fear? Can you focus on locating the source? No, of course not. You've got no training in that. I can look for it, pinpoint it back to where it's coming from, but for that I need to go back in your mind. I've got... I can't feel her. Not like you can. I sense you, but not her. It's like... she's not there.”

“She's there,” Hardy grit out, his accent making the words almost unrecognizable in his current state. “Like she's screaming in my head.”

“Sarah Jane. Ellie, you two get... um... I don't know her name there, sorry, to the hospital. Rose, help me get him back into the TARDIS. We're going to need a safe place to do a little triangulating.”

“Wait. Daisy was watching my boys,” Miller—Ellie, Rose corrected herself, they were calling her Ellie now, apparently—said. “Where are they? Oh, god, what did I do? I went with you, and they weren't safe and I'm a terrible mother and—”

“Miller,” Hardy snapped at her, and she stared at him. “Shut it down. You're on a case now.”

“Shut it down? Those are my boys and—”

“And you need to think because I _can't,”_ Hardy said, still keeping an edge in his voice, and not just because of the pain. This was what he meant about conflict pushing Ellie to her potential, wasn't it? He was angering her to get her past her panic. “Beth has been injured. How did she get here? Why was she here?”

“Need to call Mark,” Ellie said, twisting her lip. “What about Daisy's phone? Or Tom's? Can we track them with that... thing?”

“The TARDIS?” the Doctor asked. “Of course I can, and you watch yourself. She'll take offense to being called a thing. Now, yes, numbers. I can track numbers. Can even track my granddaughter—oh, that's a thing to be saying again. I thought... well, let's not bother with what I thought. Not important. We've got one child using her link to her father to call for help, two other children possibly missing, and an injured woman. Oh, and echoes. How do they all fit in together? Oh, but we were tracking. That's it, everyone into the TARDIS.”

“Even Beth?”

“She'll be fine,” the Doctor said. “Wouldn't be the first time someone's flown in the TARDIS with a concussion. Though I seem to recall telling you to take her to the hospital. Eh, well, we can do that as well. All relative in a TARDIS.”

Rose nudged Ellie. “Come on. Let's get her inside the TARDIS. Then you can call her husband.”

* * *

“She did? Oh, Mark, I'm sorry,” Ellie said, and the Doctor looked over at her, not the only one pulled in by her conversation, even if he was trying to tend to Beth Latimer's head wound. Oh, patching it up was actually quite easy, and he was ready to turn her over to someone else for the whole wiping off the blood part, but then she hadn't come around yet, which was not the most promising of signs. “No, Hardy's fine, though... well, he did have to... there was an adjustment needed. No, I know. I would have called but they were operating...”

Hardy gave her a look, rubbing at his temple again. The Doctor should probably work with him again on the barriers, though it made little difference with a daughter in danger. He knew that when he felt Susan's fear, it had been overwhelming, and he doubted it was any different for his son.

The Doctor grimaced, looking over at Hardy. He was still troubled by the fact that he didn't sense his granddaughter. He must have done something to himself back when he dropped his son in past, some kind of genetic perception filter so he'd never risk the very thing the TARDIS had brought about for them all, this near paradox.

“Mark said Beth went down to the beach with Tom and Daisy,” Ellie said, ending her call. “She was with them last he knew, and it was all I could do not to scare the life out of him all over again. He's terrified that beach took someone else he loves.”

“Neither of the children are there,” Sarah Jane said. “Daisy's not answering her phone, and neither is Tom. The TARDIS has the signals coming from a short distance away.”

“The car park,” Ellie said, and the other woman nodded. “Mark said it was about half hour ago that Beth left with the kids. They haven't been gone long. And he's got Fred, bless him.”

“One less thing to worry about,” Hardy muttered. “This... link... it was never this strong before.”

“Hmm,” the Doctor said. “Probably because you didn't know what you were before, so a part of your brain was subconsciously quashing your abilities because they couldn't be real. Incidentally—you worsened physically when you severed your connection to your daughter, didn't you?”

“I didn't—oh, shut it,” Hardy muttered. “Can we do something about actually _finding_ my daughter now?”

“This sort of thing doesn't happen in Broadchurch,” Ellie said, and Hardy gave her a look.

“Not unless you unleash killer aliens from fossils,” Sarah Jane said, and the Doctor looked over at her. “Story for another time, right, Alec?”

He didn't even acknowledge her words.

“No, but—seriously, you unleashed killer aliens from fossils? And made the blooming newspaper with them?” Ellie demanded. “Never mind. I don't want to know. Not now. Maybe later. I don't—I want my son back.”

“And I am thinking there was more than one reason the TARDIS brought us here,” the Doctor said, giving his son a glance. “Oh, to be sure, he wouldn't have lasted another week without intervention—”

“What?” Ellie asked, horrified.

“—but this place is so much more than it appears to be. Like the TARDIS, it almost seems to be alive,” the Doctor said. “Hmm. We may have to look into those fossils you mentioned—”

“Doctor, my son is in danger _now,”_ Ellie said. “Your _granddaughter_ is in danger now.”

“I'm aware of that,” the Doctor said. “I'm also aware of about fifty million other crises and events throughout the universe happening at this very second. I am thinking—and believe me, my mind can and does go in thousands of directions—and at the same time—”

“You think the fact that you don't hear Daisy and I do means that the paradox is undoing itself,” Hardy said, and the Doctor looked over at him. “I don't care if it is as long as we save my daughter first. I told you—I don't care if you're my father. I don't need another one of them. Didn't like the one I had. What I do want, what I refuse to let anyone take from me, is my daughter. So we are going to find her. Is that clear?”

“Perfectly,” the Doctor said. “Now, if I remember correctly, there should be another place of resonance, yes? Daniel Latimer died somewhere else. Not where his body was found.”

Ellie stared at him. “You really think Joe was an alien?”

“I don't know,” the Doctor told her honestly. “But I think we have to find out.”


	13. Time for Bonds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glimpses of the relationship between father and daughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I had started out with these grand ideas about advancing plot and having more pieces of the puzzle come into play, but then after I wrote Daisy's scene, I had a moment of crisis where everything sucked and I needed to run and hide and never post under this pen name again (yes, I do that sort of thing.) 
> 
> I was able to overcome that by taking a step into the past, filling in some other blanks. I figured it would be good to show how Daisy and Hardy's relationship was before Broadchurch, and it put in a few pieces of Sarah Jane's life, too.

* * *

_“You must have been wrong.”_

_“It was the only choice to make.”_

_“Except you went and made it without me.”_

_“Because you would have made the wrong one.”_

* * *

_“That's the fourth night you've been up with her,” Sarah Jane observed, unable to keep the smile from her face. She hadn't known that she could be prouder of her son than she already was, but he somehow found a way to keep surprising her._

_Pride at his grades, at his career, all of that paled in comparison with now, with this beautiful moment, watching him as a father. Alec had impressed her from the moment she laid eyes on him, but this made her heart want to burst._

_She'd never liked the look of babies, no, but Alec's daughter was as much an exception as he was. Daisy was absolutely beautiful. Alec looked both younger and older all at once, weary but more alive than ever._

_“Do you ever let Tess take a turn?”_

_“Not now,” he said, and Sarah Jane winced. She hadn't meant it as a criticism of his wife, though she knew he knew how she felt about her. Alec was the son of Time Lord, and while he was gruff and impossible at times—much like his father—he had given his heart over completely to that woman, and try as hard as she could, Sarah Jane did not see Tess doing the same._

_Not that she could._

_Alec's past was a secret from her. He'd never told her about any of the impossible things he'd seen or done. He hadn't even told her that his childhood pet was robotic. She thought K-9 was a stupid name, teased him about it, and he never corrected her, never said that he'd had a robot for a best friend, that he built supercomputers when he was bored._

_He'd left all of that behind when he chose the police force, and Tess didn't even know that part of him. She should, but Alec had tried so hard to lock it all away, leaving so much of him a stranger to the woman he'd married. He knew all of Tess, but Tess didn't know him, not the true him._

_Even Alec didn't know the truth, and Sarah Jane knew he couldn't, as much as she hated not telling him all he should know._

_“Alec,” Sarah Jane began, wondering if maybe it was past time she defied the Doctor and told him of his true heritage, especially now that he'd gone and had a child of his own._

_“She's only a few weeks old,” he whispered, pained, “and she's terrified. I can feel it. She's so scared, every night. She wakes up screaming, and Tess thinks she's just hungry. She's not. She's afraid. She's too young for nightmares, but she has them.”_

_Sarah Jane frowned. Oh, she knew that the Doctor had telepathic abilities, and it wasn't too hard to believe his son did as well, though Alec had never acknowledged them before, even when those rogue telepaths had tried to take over his school. And his department, even if that was what lead him to his transfer and later his wife._

_“Are you sure it's that and not you being a paranoid new father?”_

_He gave her a look. Turning away with the baby still in his arms, he looked out at the window. “I feel her. I've... I've been able to feel her... since the beginning. I knew before Tess did. It doesn't make any bloody sense, but I did.”_

_Sarah Jane walked over to his side, touching his arm. “Darling, I know this isn't something you want to hear—”_

_“I'm different. I know that. I've always known,” he said. He looked at her. “What have I done to my daughter?”_

_“Nothing. You didn't do anything wrong,” she said, wrapping her arms around him. “Every parent feels like this, and you... oh, darling, you've seen more terrible things than anyone should, things human and alien. You're worried. Terrified, even, because there is this life and you are responsible for it, and you know you're going to mess it up, but you are the one entrusted with this gift. You have to keep it safe. I know you will. I know you, and you are going to do everything for your little girl.”_

_“You're going to start crying now, aren't you?”_

_She was close, but she ended up laughing instead._

* * *

_Seeing the Doctor again unsettled her._

_That led her to standing on her son's doorstep, feeling foolish. She was risking a lot, since now that she was back in the Doctor's orbit, he might seek her out again, or Rose would, if things went wrong with her or her friend Mickey._

_Knowing the Doctor, things could very well end up wrong, and who knew how long Rose would last with him. Sarah Jane didn't want to speculate._

_She was about to knock when the door opened, and Daisy peered up at her. She couldn't help the smile. “Hello, sweetheart.”_

_“He's hurt.”_

_“What?”_

_“Dad. He's hurt.”_

_“Is he at the hospital? No one called me, that's not why I came,” Sarah Jane said, frowning. “Where's your mother? Is she with him?”_

_“Daisy,” Tess called, coming around the corner. “What are you doing? I told you never to answer the door yourself—wait, I didn't hear the buzzer. Just—go to your room for a second.”_

_“Gran, Dad is hurt. Mom won't believe me. Take me to him.”_

_Tess looked like she was trying not to scream in frustration. Sarah Jane knew that feeling well, since Alec drove her crazy as much as she loved him. That was a feeling every parent knew. “Daisy. Room. Now. Your dad is fine. He's working, and he'll be home when he can.”_

_“He's hurt,” Daisy said, glaring at her mother. “You never listen to me.”_

_“I thought I had a few more years before she started in on that,” Tess said, sighing. She forced a smile. “We weren't expecting you. Alec's at work. I should be, but Daisy didn't have school today. What brings you by?”_

_Sarah Jane shook her head. “I didn't mean to impose, Tess. I'm sorry. I was just... I finished a story, and it made me... nostalgic. I missed my son, and I know that's not an excuse for coming by unannounced.”_

_Tess' expression agreed, though she did the polite thing. “It's never a bother to see you, Sarah.”_

_“Sarah Jane,” she corrected out of habit. Her daughter in law glared at her, and Sarah Jane bit back a sigh. She knew she couldn't explain why it mattered to be Sarah Jane, no one else. She would have to try and explain the Doctor, and somehow she didn't see Tess believing it, even the simplified version of it, that Sarah Jane had traveled with and loved the Doctor, that he had shown her so much and left her forever changed._

_And with his son, but that definitely couldn't be said._

_“I think it might help to show Daisy her father is fine,” Sarah Jane said, trying to change the subject, though it didn't help. Tess seemed to take it as a critique of her parenting, which it wasn't, though Sarah Jane could have been more tactful about it. She just knew how strong the bond was between father and daughter, and she was worried. “Do you mind if I take her to lunch?”_

_Tess was about to answer when her phone interrupted her. She answered it. “DS Henchard.”_

_Her face lost color, and she grabbed hold of the nearest counter._

_And Sarah Jane knew that Daisy was right. Alec was hurt._

* * *

_“Dad's sick,” Daisy said, and Sarah Jane looked over at her. “He won't admit it, but I know he is. It's... I can_ feel _it. He says it's just this case. This murder. That girl.”_

_“You're not supposed to—”_

_“To know he's investigating the death of a girl my age?” Daisy asked, rolling her eyes. She was growing up too fast. Maybe not as fast as her father had, but she was older than she should be already. “I know about it. Kids at my school know about it.”_

_Sarah Jane put her hand on Daisy's. “I won't lie to you. I know this case really upset your father. He won't talk to me about it, either, but he won't stop until he finds that little girl's killer.”_

_Daisy frowned. “Is that supposed to be a comfort?”_

_“Yes,” Sarah Jane said. She sighed. Once again, the Doctor's genes were showing themselves. Too smart for her own good, this girl was, just like her father. “You're right. I suppose it isn't. You don't want your father working too much, getting obsessed the way he does, but darling, that doesn't mean that he shouldn't find that killer.”_

_Daisy nodded. “I know someone has to stop them. I know that Dad's good at it. I just...”_

_“Nightmares again?” Sarah Jane asked, pulling her granddaughter into her arms. Alec should be here, but with this case, she didn't think he would be home until he'd put that monster behind bars. She just hoped it was a normal monster this time._

_“I'm so sorry,” Sarah Jane told her, and her granddaughter clung to her, trying not to cry. “Did I ever tell you what I used to do with your father when he had nightmares?”_

_“He said you'd get his robotic dog and the three of you would stay up late with experiments or looking at the stars.” Daisy snorted. “He's a terrible liar.”_

_Sarah Jane laughed, wondering if Daisy would say that if she actually met K-9._

_“What if Dad is really sick?” Daisy asked, biting her lip. “He won't tell us.”_

_Sarah Jane nodded. “I know he won't, but that doesn't mean we can't take care of him and ourselves. Your father can be a little stubborn—”_

_“Dad won't let us help him. And... I don't know. I think they're fighting more. They don't seem to talk at all when they're at home, and if they do, they snap at each other. Dad keeps saying it's this case, but you know how he used come home and surprise Mum with a night out? Or me with an adventure?”_

_Sarah Jane did. She loved seeing that part of her son come out again, since he'd buried it down with the weight of the world since becoming a detective. Daisy helped him remember who he was and that he had a life outside of investigation, but he seemed to be forgetting it more and more, and Tess seemed tenser as well._

_“I know I'm not your father, but how would you like to have an adventure with me?” Sarah Jane asked. She knew that she shouldn't—UNIT wanted her to look into some suspicious activity nearby, and Alec had already told her if she involved Daisy in anything to do with aliens, she'd never see her granddaughter again._

_Daisy smiled. “Can we?”_

_“Of course. I just have to go get my robotic dog.”_

* * *

_“Alec?” Sarah Jane asked, opening her door with a frown. Her son was soaking wet, drenched right through, and standing on her doorstep like he didn't know where he was. She'd never seen him so lost, not even after that disastrous night when he was seventeen._

_“It's over,” he said, and Sarah Jane frowned. She shook that off, rushing him inside._

_“Come on,” she told him. “We need to get you dry and warm. Give me your coat. And get that suit off of you. Not that it's easy. You're almost impossibly like your father in that respect.”_

_“He didn't wear a suit.”_

_Sarah Jane tensed. She'd slipped again, talking about his real father, not the one he knew. She couldn't afford mistakes like that, even if Alec was old enough to where she should have confessed everything years ago. Sometimes she worried that Daisy would suffer for her silence, but somehow Alec had managed to keep her separate from it._

_“Here,” Sarah Jane said, handing him a jumper she'd intended on giving him as a gift. “Put this on. I'm not sure what to do about pants...”_

_He looked at her. “Why not? Shouldn't you have found someone by now?”_

_She bit her lip. “I... I was actually thinking about that. Though not the way you'd expect. I thought I might try foster care.”_

_“And hunt aliens?”_

_“No, that I'd have to give up, but I miss when you were young and needed me. Spending time with Daisy reminds me of how good that life was. I could be that for someone else again, and it would be just as much saving the world as stopping an invasion—oh, Alec. You meant you and Tess, didn't you?”_

_He shivered despite the jumper. “She left me. Long time ago. Didn't see it. Why didn't I bloody see it? An affair under my own damned nose. Some detective I am.”_

_Sarah Jane winced. “You believed the best of someone you loved. That's not a crime.”_

_Alec turned away from her. “Don't. Don't go comparing your marriage to mine.”_

_“It's not the same, and I wouldn't,” Sarah Jane said. She'd loved Stuart, but never enough for him. He couldn't take second—well, third—place in her heart, and he'd gotten bitter over it. In the beginning, though, he was everything she and Alec needed. He helped her heal after the Doctor left, he gave her son a father, and them both a home. It was only later that it unraveled, as it had with Alec and Tess. He'd loved her, but it wasn't enough, and though Sarah Jane had always feared that was true, she wished she'd been wrong._

_“How is Daisy taking it?”_

_“Don't know,” Alec said, putting his head in his hands. “She won't talk to me.”_

_That didn't sound at all like her granddaughter. Not Daisy. She and Alec were connected in a way no one understood, not even the woman who knew that their DNA was different. “I don't understand. Daisy always talks to you.”_

_“Lee Ashworth is going free.”_

_“What?”_

_“The evidence is gone. It... He got away with it. I lost my wife. My daughter. And that bastard is getting way with murder.”_

_Sarah Jane went to his side, lowering his hands and forcing him to look at her. “What happened? And don't tell me it was you. You're... oh, I know you make mistakes, but not like that. Never like that. Not you. And I'm not just saying that because I'm your mother.”_

_He leaned his head against hers. “Tess...”_

_“Oh, hell,” Sarah Jane said. “Don't do this. Don't—”_

_“My career can stand it. Hers can't. And there's Daisy. I don't... I can't leave her with nothing. Tess has to be able to support her. And she can't... she can't know about the affair. She can't.”_

_“Don't be an idiot. Your daughter—you—Alec, you have a bond. She can feel your distress. You feel hers. You know that you can't—”_

_“I don't feel anything,” he said. “It's all gone.”_

* * *

“You know you won't get away with this,” Daisy said, twisting in her ropes. She figured she could get herself free if she kept trying, but that was going to take a bit. She stood a better chance of getting through to Tom, if he could stop staring in shock and trying to convince himself that his father hadn't hurt Beth and abducted them.

He knew better, of course, but he wasn't a Hardy. He was a Miller, and Millers somehow believed the best of people. Daisy thought that could be better in some ways, but right now, she was glad she didn't trust many people. She still wished that she hadn't trusted her mother. She should have known better because her gran never had, but then her mum had always said no one would be good enough for her dad in her gran's eyes.

Daisy wasn't so sure about that, but when she looked back on her family when they were together, she always seemed to find her mother with this long-suffering expression, like she was just tolerating everything her dad did, and that wasn't love.

Maybe that was what she knew now coloring everything, making it seem like something it wasn't. Daisy didn't know. She just knew if her parents hadn't lied to her, she wouldn't have spent the last two years without her father.

“My dad will find you.”

Joe Miller looked at her, and she got the feeling he was still trying to work himself up to hurting her. Beth was easy, she'd gone after him when she saw him, but Daisy, she'd been too busy trying to figure out why Joe's shadow didn't match up to him. That had been her downfall there.

“I'll have taken Tom and been long gone by then.”

“Doesn't matter where you go,” Daisy said. “My dad will find you. And this time you'll go to jail and stay there because I saw what you did to Mrs. Latimer. And you took us.”

“I didn't hurt Tom.”

Daisy looked over at Tom, once again seeing the glazed look on his face, the stunned disbelief, and she snorted. “You think you haven't? It's called emotional distress, and it's all over him.”

_Come on, Dad. Where are you? What are you doing? Why weren't you at the beach? How could you let Joe Miller walk free?_

That last one made Daisy wince. That wasn't really her dad's fault. He'd made mistakes during the investigation, she knew that from the trial, but he hadn't been one of the idiots on the jury or the corrupt lawyer. He'd just been... himself. He'd let Miller have a moment when he shouldn't have, and he'd arrested Joe without a witness, but those weren't damning crimes. Those were just mistakes the defense had twisted around to make him look incompetent or worse, bent.

“You still kidnapped me,” Daisy reminded him. “Not only will I not forget this, but my dad will never stop hunting for me. He will make you pay.”

“Your dad was one step away from death's door.”

“He got a pacemaker. His heart's been fixed,” Daisy said, though she knew it must have been broken again if he had disappeared on her. That, and it would break for a different reason if something bad happened to her.

“Tom, go get us some tea. That's a good lad,” Joe said, ushering him out into the other room and shutting the door behind him. He turned back to Daisy, and she figured she knew what it was like for Danny Latimer right before he died. “You need to stop talking.”

Daisy shrugged. “Can't. Never have, really. It's this thing. Mum used to laugh and say it was genetic, and Dad looked at her like she was crazy because Dad never talks, I mean almost never and if you come near me I'm going to scream—”

His hand was over her mouth in a second, the other one going to her neck. “You just have to stay quiet until Tom and I leave.”

Daisy shook her head against his hand. She wouldn't. She'd scream until someone heard her. She should have done it at the beach, but she'd been afraid he'd make sure Mrs. Latimer was dead if she did, and then maybe she'd have gotten her head bashed in, too.

She was going to scream, even if it was just in her head.

Joe seemed to know what she was thinking, and she saw a look on his face like he was trying to convince himself to kill her, since if he did it now Tom would know and that was something he didn't seem to want. He needed Tom to believe he wasn't a killer when he was, and that meant leaving her behind alive.

Only he also knew he couldn't do that if he hoped to get away with this. He had to silence her for good. Though that was stupid, too, because she'd said that her father wouldn't stop hunting him, and she was right. If he hurt her, her father would find him.

Joe's hand on her neck started to tighten, cutting off her air. She couldn't breathe. She tried to scream, but she couldn't.

And then the strangest sort of calm came over her, and she looked up at Joe, wanting to smile. Her father was coming.


	14. Time for Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They find Daisy... and something a bit alien... and something else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I have yet another piece ready to add to the puzzle, and yes, I know I didn't explain a few things, but I'll get to that... it was a matter of getting the catalyst there first.
> 
> I couldn't think of fitting flashbacks, and I apologize. I worked a crazy schedule today and may have missed a few things along the way to getting this posted. It looks fine now, but I'm very sleep deprived at the moment.

* * *

_“You don't know that it would have been the wrong choice.”_

_“Yes, I do. You see things as right or wrong, and I know that it's never that simple. This had to be done. I did it. I took it upon myself to make sure it was. You can hate me if you like.”_

_“I'd say I'll hate you for the rest of my life, but I won't remember, will I?”_

* * *

The Doctor opened the doors to the TARDIS, looking out onto the cliff. “Ah, I do believe we are here. Hut overlooking the cliff? This looks right to everyone, doesn't it? I've never been here, so I can't say, but it does seem like where we should be. Could have rustic charm if one were inclined to be that kind of... domestic.”

“Not you,” Rose said, and he laughed. “That would involve a mortgage.”

“This is the point at which Daisy would be saying that she doesn't think that word means what you think it means,” Hardy muttered. “It's a bloody mortgage, not the end of the world.”

“I take it back, you're human,” the Doctor muttered, shaking his head in disapproval. “Never mind that now. We are in the proper location? Daisy is close?”

Hardy frowned. “What am I supposed to be now, a bloody wolfhound? I might have smelled blood back on the beach, couldn't help it, but I'm not—”

“Familiar with the way a bond between Time Lords works. Or perhaps it is different for a demi-Lord. We'll have to test that. Later, much later,” the Doctor amended, aware that his son was not at all willing to participate in any sort of test at all. “Come now. You—Ellie—this is the right place, isn't?”

She nodded. “Not that long ago, we were here. We made Joe leave the town, never to come back. I told him I'd kill him if he went after my boys.”

“And you thought he'd stand for that? Are you out of your bloody mind, Miller?” Hardy demanded. “Your husband refused to go to prison for Daniel Latimer's death. He blamed everyone else for what happened, made the whole town go on trial, twisted it all about, and you thought he'd accept being run out of Broadchurch?”

“It was the only thing we could do. The other option was killing him, and why are we debating this when your daughter is in danger?”

“Because we're still missing pieces of the puzzle,” the Doctor said. He considered confirming whether or not she had noticed any changes in her husband that could have explained the murder or a possible alien duplication, but as she'd apparently testified in court to seeing no sign of it—mind you, the papers weren't all that inclined to believe her in that respect—he didn't figure it was worth asking again.

He started toward the hut. He stopped, licking a finger and checking the air. He paused, taking in atmospheric changes as well as the rest of his surroundings. Reaching out with all of his senses, he had a decent enough idea of what was about, but he took his screwdriver out. Never hurt to be prepared.

“Someone's here,” the Doctor said, aware that some of his companions were glaring at him. He put a finger to his lips and opened the door. He took a step inside, and then something came rushing at him, bumping him as it darted past.

“Mum,” the boy said, clinging to Ellie. “Mum, he killed Beth. He's going to kill Daisy.”

“The hell he is,” Hardy said, and the Doctor didn't bother trying to restrain his son. He followed after him instead, Rose close behind both of them. Sarah Jane was with them, but the Doctor wasn't aware of her as much as he was his son. Impossible not to be focused on him, really, with the emotions rolling off of him in such strong waves—didn't need to touch him him to sense the anger or know the sorts of scenarios running through his head. Violent ones, all of them.

And as much as the Doctor should be appalled by those kinds of thoughts, that was his granddaughter, and he was just a smidge—a smidge, mind you—in agreement with them.

Hardy shoved the door to the other room open with enough force to mangle a few hinges. “Let go of her right _now.”_

“Oh, if I didn't already know he was your son, that would have done it,” Rose whispered. “Bit of the Oncoming Storm, yeah?”

The Doctor gave her a look, suppressing his own sense of pride. Ages since he'd felt that. He'd thought the part of him that was a parent was long since dead, but he was wrong. Almost a shame he'd have to lose it all over again.

Joe Miller stepped away from Hardy's daughter, and she flopped over, wheezing, making the Doctor grimace—even if she'd had the proper systems in her, she wouldn't know how to bypass them as he did. Even her father the demi-Lord didn't know that part, not yet.

“You were going to kill her.”

“She shouldn't even have been there,” Joe protested. “If she hadn't been there—”

“Don't. You don't get to blame someone else for this,” Hardy said, his voice cold and very familiar despite the difference in accents. “You were warned to stay away. You didn't. You went after my daughter. My daughter. If there was any part of me that might have shown you leniency, it died the minute you put your hand on her.”

“Oh, that is a nice speech,” the Doctor said, and his son turned back to glare at him. “Sorry. Bit of—well, I don't suppose now is a good time for me to point out that—”

“Doctor, his shadow,” Rose said, clutching at his arm.

“Yes, that. I was about to mention that. See, in all our discussions as to whether or not this man here was an alien, possibly from the rift in space time, we didn't really talk about him having a bit of a hitchhiker on him. Well, stowaway, I guess you might say, even if he's not ship.”

“What is he on about?” Joe asked, looking to Hardy in confusion. “Wait, why are there two of you? Why aren't you dead?”

“If your next statement is something to acknowledge a culpability in harming him, you will really regret it,” the Doctor warned, pointing his screwdriver at the wall. “Same goes for you. Double, even.”

Joe looked at the wall and frowned. “You're insane.”

“No, just talking to the alien pretending to be your shadow.”

* * *

“Dad,” Daisy said, pulling on her father's arm, never happier to see him in her life, and that was even after that weird toad thing had almost hit them on the roadway, something her mum still denied to this day. No toad, just a bit of inattention to the road, but Daisy knew better.

Her father pulled her up against his side. “You're safe now.”

“Dad, the guy who looks like you is talking crazy,” Daisy hissed out, not really whispering, and she grimaced even as her father did the unthinkable and laughed. Okay, everyone had gone crazy, then. Maybe this was a dream. Two of her father, that had to be one, didn't it?

Pointing his little light thing at the wall again, the man in the suit nodded, pulling out a pair of glasses and putting them on. “Yup. That's it, all right. See, Daisy—oh, and you, too, of course, Rose. Sarah Jane. I was just explaining to Daisy—that's nice, by the way, love the name Daisy, makes me think of a song—”

“Wanker,” her father interrupted, and she stared at him.

“Oi,” the other man said. “We're going to have a long talk about your choice of language later. Well, assuming that this shadow doesn't kill us. All the emotions its been feeding on here, soaking up like a little sponge. I'm surprised you didn't go to prison. Think of all that despair you could have had.”

“He is insane, isn't he?”

“If people would quit interrupting me and making me lose my train of thought—I did that once, rode a train made entirely of thought—but this is me, staying focused and pointing out that the light in this room is coming from that lamp there, yes? Then why is Joe's shadow on the other wall?”

Daisy swallowed, trying to grab hold of her father in a panic. He was right. She'd seen it before, at the beach, but it was even clearer now. It was on the wrong wall. “At the beach, it just looked larger than it should have been.”

“That too, I expect. It's not actually Joe's shadow or even his size, and it does a passable job, but not a great one. Fools a few humans, but for someone with enhanced senses who has some idea of what they're looking for? No, not a chance of that. Even someone without much training could see it. She's brilliant, our girl is, isn't she?”

“Very much so,” Gran said, and Daisy frowned. Why did she trust him? How did she know him? Was he actually her uncle, because he was starting to scare her, even if he was right about the shadow.

“Soppy,” her father said.

“Right, sorry,” the other man said, grimacing. “I've never been like that before, come to think of it. So very human. Must be slipping.”

“Quit saying human like it's an insult,” Rose told him. “And tell us about the shadow thing over there.”

“Ah, yes, our hitchhiker,” he said. “About that. Shouldn't exist, since my people really didn't care for the way they fed off the Time War, but as time has proved to me over and over again, things that were supposed to die there don't stay dead.”

“Can it... talk?” Rose asked, “or is it just a shadow?”

“It's kind of more like... pure energy. Emotional energy, which explains the resonance at the beach where the body was left. It found itself an excellent source of... well, food, sort of, but not really—gets a bit technical there—in that one.”

“Did it...” Gran swallowed. “Did it _make_ him kill that boy?”

“Oh, no. It's not capable of that. Most it could do was try to strongly suggest it, but without a means of direct communication or control, no.”

“The monsters are still human,” her dad said, and the man in the suit nodded.

“Quite.”

“Um, Doctor,” Rose began, “is it me or is his shadow... um... on the right wall now?”

“Damn it,” the Doctor said. “Rose, with me. We have to find it before it finds someone else to shadow.”

* * *

“We need to deal with him,” Hardy said, not sure why they hadn't had Miller bursting in, though she'd had her son to worry about, and he'd thought Beth Latimer was dead, so Miller probably had to show him that he wasn't, and the shock to his system of the TARDIS being bigger on the inside had probably pushed the boy over the edge.

Hardy grimaced. Miller had her hands full, and he wasn't sure how his daughter would react to knowing that he was somehow a part of all of that.

“Is there something here we can use to restrain him? Something other than what he used on Daisy?” Hardy asked. He frowned when he got no answer. Clearing his throat, he forced the word passed his lips, not sure why it was always so difficult to say. “Mum.”

Startled, she turned to face him. “Oh, Alec. I'm sorry. I was trying to remember if I'd ever been in contact with something like that, but that's not very helpful, and in any case, the Doctor should have that in hand. He always did before, more or less, and he does have help.”

Hardy nodded, familiar with that sort of distraction. When his mother thought about the man she'd traveled with, she'd always get far off and distant, and it wasn't hard to see why his father—adoptive father—had hated it so much.

“We need to secure him,” Hardy said, nodding to Joe, and then he grimaced. His mother wasn't a frail woman by any means, but Joe had put a man in the hospital and killed a child. “Come see to Daisy. I'll deal with him.”

“I'm afraid this will be difficult to explain to the authorities.”

Hardy snorted. “Who says we're taking him back to jail?”

“You're not serious. You wouldn't kill him. I know he attacked Daisy, but you can't—”

“TARDIS,” he reminded his mother, and she stared at him for a minute before she nodded. “Come help Daisy. Then we better check on Miller and her son.”

She nodded, going around to her granddaughter. “Let's get these off of you. Did he hurt you besides what we saw?”

Daisy shook her head. “No. I went with him to stop him from killing Mrs. Latimer. He was pretending to be nice in front of Tom most of the time.”

“I never hurt Tom,” Joe said, and Hardy was tempted to kick him.

“You killed his best friend and betrayed his mother. You did plenty of damage to that boy.”

“Come with me, Daisy,” his mother said, coaxing her forward. “I think there's a lot we have to discuss, and I should make your father do it, but then again, so much of this is my doing... and it will be a lot easier if you see it first.”

“Gran, what are you—”

“Go with her,” Hardy said. He didn't want the task of explaining to her, but he also wanted a minute alone with Joe Miller before anyone else came back. He waited for them to leave, watching the other man very carefully.

“You knew about my heart problems.”

Joe shrugged. “Paramedic. Thought I recognized the symptoms. Wasn't sure about them until after you collapsed that night.”

“You confessed to me. Specifically. Because you thought I was weak.”

“I wanted it to be over.”

“You liar. You didn't want that. If you wanted that, you would have plead guilty. You didn't. And you are going to regret that and so much more because not only is my heart problem fixed, but the ways I can make you pay for what you've done have increased well beyond what you can imagine.” Hardy gave him a small smile. “First, though, you have to pay for going _near_ my daughter.”

* * *

“I think I fried his brain,” Ellie said, and Sarah Jane put a hand on her arm, offering her comfort even as Daisy circled around the TARDIS, trying to understand what she was seeing. Tom had been so convinced that Beth was dead that she'd had to bring him inside to show him that Beth was fine, if unconscious, but now he just stood, staring at the time ship.

She couldn't tell if he was horrified or just surprised.

“It takes a bit of getting used to,” Sarah Jane told her. “Just about everyone does it, stumbles over the bigger on the inside part.”

“This is impossible,” Daisy said, running back to the door and going out. Ellie figured she was making sure it was the same on the outside as what she'd seen going in. She rushed back in. “And amazing. I'm still waiting to wake back up, but something about it feels... familiar.”

The ship seemed to hum, and Daisy walked over to the middle of the room, touching the console.

“Um, don't do that. None of us understand how it works.”

“Strictly speaking, neither does the Doctor. He's a lousy driver,” Sarah Jane said. “Not that this old girl doesn't have a mind of her own. She always makes sure he's where he needs to be.”

Ellie frowned. “So when you said God, you actually meant a time machine?”

Sarah Jane just smiled at her, and that was when Hardy came back through the door, dragging Joe along behind him. Joe looked around him, and Ellie swore he was about to wet himself. She folded her arms over her chest.

“Guess now we can try to claim insanity.”

Hardy snorted. “I was thinking more of dropping him off on planet that doesn't support human life.”

Ellie looked over at her husband. “I can't believe I'm agreeing with you.”

“Alec—”

“Exactly what court system here is going to convict him? He got away with murder once, and even if we have Mrs. Latimer, Tom, and Daisy to testify, how do we explain any of the rest of it? There's a reason I insist on fact, not fantasy.”

“Only it's never been a fantasy, has it, Dad? Gran's impossible things were all real,” Daisy said, staring at the coil in the middle. “You grew up with them, didn't you? And K-9 is real, really real.”

“K-9?” Ellie asked, frowning.

“Dad's pet dog. Robot pet dog,” Daisy said with an excited grin that made her seem half her age. “So there are actual aliens out there. That shadow was one, but have you seen others? Oh, wow, the Loch Ness monster. Gran actually _did_ see it.”

Hardy grimaced. “Daisy, you need to understand—”

“I think I'll make some tea,” Sarah Jane said. “Does anyone else want some? I don't know how long the Doctor will be, but we should make arrangements to return your friend Beth to her home by normal means if he takes much longer.”

“That shadow thing... it can't hurt anyone, can it?”

Sarah Jane winced. “Honestly, I've no idea. Never seen or heard of anything like that before. Daleks, Cybermen, Krillitanes—”

“Enough,” Hardy said. “No more discussing any of this in front of him. I'm going to see if I can tell where the Doctor ended up. Miller, with me.”

“Why would I do that?” Ellie asked, following him in spite of the question. She should stay with Tom, and she wasn't so sure she trusted Joe in the TARDIS, even if Hardy had worked him over before tying him inside the ship.

“Because you know this area better than I do,” Hardy answered, and she couldn't argue with that, though she wanted to. “I don't even remember much of walking the paper route. A shadow could go anywhere, so it could have gone straight down the cliffs, but I don't think they would have, even as daft as he is.”

Ellie shook her head. “That isn't any way to talk about your—”

“Miller,” Hardy hissed, and she stopped, seeing his daughter coming out of the TARDIS and over to his side. She walked over to him and held on tight. “Oh, darling. I shouldn't have left you in there with him. How's—”

“Gran took Tom to find the kitchen. She said it might have moved on her.”

Ellie shook her head, walking a bit closer to the cliff's edge, wanting to give them some privacy. Hardy did have a lot to tell her, and Ellie needed to see if she could find the Doctor.

“Your companions really are getting younger, aren't they?” 

Ellie whirled around at the sound of an American's voice. What now? Another alien?

“Excuse me?” Hardy asked, pushing Daisy back toward the TARDIS.

“Oh, come on,” the other man said. “I thought we were past the whole fixed point—fact—wrong thing after that whole year that never was. Though you don't really seem over it. Changed the suit—not a flattering look. I'm on the fence about the scruff. On the one hand, it's very manly. Sexy, even, but on the other... you've let yourself go a bit.”

“Who the bloody hell are you?” Hardy demanded.

“I'd ask you if you'd gone and chameleon arched yourself again, but that biodamper doesn't work on me. Time Agent training and all,” the other man said. “Still looking good for nine hundred, though. Very good.”

Ellie frowned. “You serious? Him?”

“Well, you're none too shabby yourself,” the man said, holding out a hand to her. “Captain Jack Harkness at your service.”

“Bloody hell.”


	15. Time for a Time Agent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor and Rose pursue the alien while the others try to make sense of their extra guest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of the problems with crossovers is having so many large casts and then ending up neglecting characters. Which it wasn't my intent to do, though it has been hard to find a role for some and to do justice to them. Beth is actually quite amazing, I think, in how she deals with all of what she goes through, and I wanted to show that, but there's a lot of Doctor Who running through this, and that has overshadowed things.
> 
> Still, it's what makes this story and universe possible, so... it will probably stay unbalanced, despite my best efforts.

* * *

_“Would you still have done it if you knew?”_

_“Knew what?”_

_“That you could change everything?”_

_“There are fixed points in time. Certain things have to happen. I've told you this before.”_

_“Even this?”_

_“Yes, even this.”_

* * *

“Doctor, if this thing is a shadow, how are we going to track it in the dark?” Rose asked, following him out of the hut. This was more like their usual sort of adventure, chasing after an alien—or being chased by aliens—and she was relieved even as confused as she was. It was a nice distraction from thinking about the Doctor having a son and all the implications of that. “Wouldn't it have just gone over to one of us instead?”

“Not me, I can sense it,” the Doctor answered, running along the path, his coat flapping along behind him as he did. She hurried after him, trying not to fall down the incline.

“So... your son would be able to sense it. And your granddaughter,” Rose said, trying not to wince. So much for not thinking about the Doctor having a kid. Grandkids, even. He'd said he was a father once, but this was different, meeting his kid.

A kid he hadn't had yet.

She shook that off. “Okay, it knew that there were three people there that could sense it, yeah? And it ran away from us because one of you would know it was hanging around one of us, but—no, if that was true, why didn't Hardy notice before?”

“Because he didn't want to, I suppose,” the Doctor answered, stopping at the base of the hill and scanning the area with his screwdriver. “Sarah Jane said he made a decision—and he said it as well—to put the unexplained behind him and focus on facts and things easily proved by this time period's science. He has a great comprehension of things beyond it, but he doesn't allow them in the same way we do.”

“But he knows, so how could he go around denying it?”

“People do it all the time,” the Doctor reminded her. “They accepted the cover stories before, didn't they? The Slitheen. The Sycorax. They know aliens are out there, but they keep denying it. And remember Trish? She denied seeing the pictures that her daughter drew moving.”

Rose nodded. “Yeah, suppose so.”

“And also I suppose one could almost excuse his failure to spot the shadow because his heart was failing and had him rather preoccupied. Oh, and of course, there is the fact that he tried to sever his bond with his daughter. His psychic barriers were crude but somewhat effective,” the Doctor said, putting his hands in his pockets, looking out at the docks in front of them.

“Okay, but that doesn't actually tell you how you're gonna find this thing,” Rose said. “It could be anywhere by now. The sun's not come up yet—”

“It needs a host to shadow or it will die,” the Doctor said. “Places and things have some resonance of their own, that sense you get when you step on a place that's seen history or when you pick up something that has meaning for you, but that's not enough for them. No, they need a constant source of emotional energy, and Joe Miller was a perfect host.”

She trailed after the Doctor as he moved forward, stopping at a place in the middle of the lot. She saw him frown, not in confusion but more like he was sad.

“Doctor?”

“Miller was the host, and he was here, but this spot wasn't for him.”

Rose winced. “Your son?”

The Doctor nodded. “He almost died here. Right here. I saw it in his mind. We were almost too late, Rose. By months, I suppose, but at the same time—”

“A week, yeah? You said he would have died before this week was over.”

“And it's true. That pacemaker couldn't sustain him, not with that much damage to his remaining heart,” the Doctor said, closing his eyes and letting out a breath. “Which would seem to be the reason the TARDIS brought us here—”

“And the shadow?”

“Mostly harmless.”

“Mostly?”

The Doctor gave her a grin, and Rose shook her head as he took her hand.

* * *

Beth's head throbbed, and she didn't want to move, but one thing she'd had plenty experience doing since she had Chloe was moving when she didn't feel like it. That was a skill all parents had to some degree, and after fifteen years of it, she was damned bloody good at it. She might have lost Danny, but she hadn't stopped being a mother. She had Chloe and Lizzie to think about, and she had to get back to them.

Joe. Joe Miller had done this. They'd run him out of town but he was already back. He'd been on that beach.

_“I told you never to come back here,” Beth said. “You have no future here.”_

_“This is my home. That is my son. You can't keep me from him.”_

_“No, you stole my son from me, and you are never getting close to another little boy. Ever. Ellie told you that if you went near him—”_

_Joe lunged for her._

Beth put a hand on her head, wincing, but she didn't feel blood. No cut. That was strange. Stranger still was what she saw when she managed to get her eyes open. The room—was it a room?—looked almost like it belonged under water on some reef someplace she'd never been to but had seen on the telly. The light seemed to be blue or maybe green, against the walls that looked almost alive, like some kind of monster, maybe.

Beth forced herself to her feet and took hold of the railing, using it to drag herself forward, toward the door. She didn't know if she was seeing right, but she'd rather be outside. She would have thought—was this somewhere that Joe had put her? Or could it be some weird room at the hospital? No, hospitals didn't have rooms like that.

Still, why would Joe put her somewhere with a railing?

She forced herself forward, and she pushed the door open, stumbling outside. She didn't know how she stayed on her feet, but she was there, sort of hovering, ready to fall over, as she took in where she was. That place. Danny died here. Joe killed him there, inside that place, and she counted the knives, but how did she get back here and how is it there when she was just inside?

“Bloody hell.”

Ellie was the first to move, rushing to her side. “Oh, thank God you're awake. I was worried. The Doctor said you'd be fine, and somehow I believed him even though he's such a wanker, but you weren't awake, and Joe had Tom. I wasn't thinking straight. It's no excuse.”

“How,” Beth began, swallowing. “How... did we get here?”

Ellie grimaced. “You really don't want to know.”

“Oh, but that's the best part,” the man in the long coat said, grinning. “You got to travel in the sports car. Me, not so much. Should have known he'd do something to the vortex manipulator.”

“That man,” Hardy's daughter said, pulling on his arm. “He's... what is... I think I feel sick.”

Hardy backed her away from the man in the coat. “Breathe, darling. Breathe.”

She turned, burying her face in his coat, and Beth thought she might puke on him, which she supposed Ellie would enjoy, but Beth would probably get sick herself. No, she would be sick. She was sick. He was like Joe, wasn't he? A sick man who liked kids.

“You're gonna arrest him, right?” Beth asked Ellie. “You won't let another one who goes after kids walk free.”

Ellie flinched, but her look hardened. “Is that what you are? A bloody pervert?”

The man in the coat frowned. “What has he been telling you about me? I mean, sure, I'm a little bit flexible, but I'm not a bad guy. Just ask him. Well, maybe not because I think he may have gone and altered his DNA a little, but I swear, everyone I've been with was above the age of consent. And consent they did. A _lot.”_

He winked. Or at least, Beth thought he did, and he was definitely grinning at the end.

“I think that's worse than being hit on by Dirty Brian,” Ellie muttered. “Not that I—you, stop leering. Beth, we need to get you home. I'll get Fred, take both my boys back to my house, and you—you are staying with me, no arguments this time.”

“The hell I am,” Hardy said. “Daisy and I can manage.”

“What about Gran?” Daisy asked, still sounding sick. 

“Wow. This really has gotten domestic, hasn't it?” the other man asked. “I thought you didn't do that. Ever. Isn't that what you said? Or did what the Master do change you that much? Is that it? After that year of hell, you... I don't know, snapped? I mean, the rumpled clothes, the facial hair, the accent... This is how you cope with what the Master did to us?”

“What are you on about?”

“Yes, Jack,” another voice said. “Please tell us exactly how you know the Master.”

* * *

“Doctor,” Jack said, turning to face him, unable to help the smile. This was how he remembered him, brown suit, pinstripes and all, with the shirt and the tie in pristine condition, even as his hair was all over the place, and the coat. Jack himself had some love for coats, his in particular, but also this Doctor's. Not that the leather look was bad, either. He liked leather.

“Jack.”

Ah. The Oncoming Storm seemed angry. Jack could think of a few reasons for that. “I take it you were waiting for me to make this trip.”

“The Master, Jack. How do you know about him?”

“Doctor?” Rose asked, tugging on his arm, sounding worried, and Jack smiled to see her only to realize just how bad this could be. He swallowed, torn between wanting to touch her after all this time, to embrace her after thinking she was lost forever, dead first and then trapped in a parallel universe.

Except if she was with the Doctor and he was asking Jack how he knew about the Master, then it was too damned soon.

It hadn't happened yet. None of it. Rose was still with the Doctor, Canary Wharf was ahead of them, and so was the Year that Never Was. Jack knew enough to change all of it, but the Doctor wouldn't let him, would he?

“Rose,” he heard himself whisper, and she ran over to him, hugging him.

“Oh, I thought—well, he told me you weren't dead, but I thought that we'd never see you again,” Rose said. “I should have made him go back for you, but the regeneration—it went a lot wrong. Oh, but you don't know about that, do you?”

“I do,” Jack said. He pulled back from her. “I know lots of things, Rose. More than I can begin to tell you. I missed you, though. I missed you so much.”

“I'm sorry,” she said. She didn't try to say more, and he was glad of that, though it still stung, what the Doctor had done. He'd run from Jack back then, and he'd lied to Rose. He might not have let her think that Jack was dead, but he'd never told her the truth, had he? Or was that what this apology was?

“Well, we're here now,” Jack said, stepping back and cupping her cheek. “You look good.”

She rolled her eyes. “It's the middle of the night, and we were hunting an alien shadow. I'm a mess. You just can't see it.”

“I'd like to go back to how and what you know about the Master,” the Doctor said, arms folded over his chest. “Now, Jack.”

“Wait,” the other woman interrupted. “You know him? And he's not just some bloody pervert?”

“Oh, he _is_ a pervert,” Rose teased, and Jack gave her a look even as she started laughing. “Sorry. I was just remembering that story—well, all your stories end with you naked, so...”

“Only the best ones,” Jack said, though he couldn't manage the same humor this time around, not after the Master and that damned year. “And I don't think I should tell you about the Master. Or what I know. I... It hasn't happened yet.”

“Yes,” the Time Lord agreed. “I think that must be the case.”

Jack winced. That was not the side of the Doctor he liked seeing. “I mean, I wasn't always the best about following the Time Agency's rules, but they were pretty clear on that. Though... now that I think about it, we're already in a paradox, aren't we?”

He turned back to the man he'd assumed was the Doctor—man had two hearts and looked the same as the regeneration that Jack knew now—but the differences were there. Clothes, accent, facial hair. “Is this your way of waking yourself out of a chameleon arch?”

“How do you know about that?” the Doctor demanded. “And why would I? I would never use that thing. That's ridiculous. What use would I ever have for that? You know a fellow Time Lord made it as a joke, don't you? A mockery, actually. That's what it was. They weren't very understanding of my 'affection' for this planet.”

“The Master created the chameleon arch?” Jack asked, feeling sick. “That was his work?”

“I didn't say it was,” the Doctor told him. “Now how do you know about any of this?”

“Doctor—”

“Miller,” the older looking Doctor said, turning back to the woman. “Take Mrs. Latimer and Daisy back to the TARDIS. Now.”

She snorted. “You're unbelievable. You are not ordering me about now. You can't keep this from her any longer. That won't work. We've all seen too much, and you are not putting me off, not distracting me. Not this time. This isn't a case. This is... something else. Your life, even, and if you think that—”

“How did you feel when you found out your husband killed a child he claimed he loved?” the scruffy Doctor said, his words sounding harsher in that accent of his. “When you learned Lee and Claire conspired to kill a child to blackmail Ricky into silence about Lisa's death? Think. Those monsters were only human.”

She flinched. “I hate you.”

“Yes, well,” the Doctor said, not bothering to apologize. “Go. She still has a concussion, Daisy can't be near that... thing, and your son is somewhere in there. Your husband, too, for that matter.”

“You...” She turned away, and Jack almost wished he could hear what she was muttering under her breath as she guided her friend inside the TARDIS. The girl followed them, stumbling about, and from the look on scruffy Doctor's face, Jack was in for it.

“Tell me what you know about the Master,” the Doctor in pinstripes insisted. “Now.”

Jack frowned. “You know, I realize the situation between you and the Master was... complicated. On levels I don't think I want to understand, but you're obsessed with this to the point where I don't think I want to tell you.”

“You said I used the chameleon arch,” the Doctor said, giving his near twin a glance before focusing on Jack. “Why?”

“I shouldn't—”

“Answer the bloody question,” the other Doctor said. “Now. Or I'll throw you off the cliff myself.”

“You wouldn't,” Rose said, staring at him. “You... You can't. That's not...”

“Not him?” the scruffy one asked, snorting. “In case you missed it, I'm not him. And that thing is so wrong that everything in me revolts. He can answer, or I can chuck him off a cliff. I already held back that urge once tonight. Not sure I can make myself do it twice.”

Jack knew he'd come back from it, but he didn't want to die that way again. “Let's hold off on that for a second. Now, I know I didn't intend to come here, but you did mess with my wristband, so I can assume that when you did you wanted me here. Implying that you wanted me to tell you. I suppose it could be what ends the paradox, though with two of you here already—”

“Just tell me why I used that thing,” the Doctor insisted. “Was it the Master?”

“No. The Family of Blood.”

“What?” Rose asked. “What's that, some sort of... vampire?”

“Gaseous predators,” the Doctor said. “Some of the best hunters known to the universe. Amazing tracking ability. Would have been impressive if they didn't feed on others.”

“Time Lord,” Jack said. “Ultimate meal. Could live forever off you. So you hid. Turned human, tried to wait them out, and that almost worked.”

The Doctor shook his head. “That's not possible.”

“It happened.” Jack was getting frustrated now. “You badger me to answer and then won't listen. They followed you to 1913 where you hid from them. You had to come out early because they found you. All of this—well, I shouldn't even mention the rest of it. That would be a paradox on top of a paradox.”

“No,” the Doctor said. “It's something else entirely.”

Jack wanted to hit something. “Oh, for the love of—”

“Doctor, what is it?” Rose asked, worried again. “If this is a paradox—”

“Try a fracture in time,” the other Doctor said, and the one in pinstripes looked to him, pained. “That's what it is, isn't it? The timelines diverged. The paths split. Which means when you fix it—”

“No,” the pinstriped one said, shaking his head. “No. That will not happen. It _can't.”_

Jack winced. “Don't you just go back to your timelines and... forget? No, we didn't forget, but you should still realign to your proper time periods and be fine, right?”

“No,” the Doctor said. “Because he's not me, Jack. This isn't one of my other forms or me from the future or the past. That's my son. And the only way that scenario you just described works is if... if he didn't exist at all.”


	16. Time for Distractions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor, Rose, and Hardy have a talk with Jack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was another one of those parts that I wrote and had to sleep on, ending up throwing out part of it and rewriting and adding on. It was still trying for the same thing, just not in the right way, so hopefully this is better.
> 
> And I still haven't gotten to explain much, and everyone keeps getting distracted. Characters. They shouldn't be allowed to run the story, but there isn't one without them.

* * *

_“How do you know if a point is fixed or not?”_

_“What?”_

_“You say points in time are fixed, but how do you know? You come in and change our lives on a daily basis, so how do you know whether you're able to do it or not? You changed the past. I know you did. I was there.”_

_“So?”_

_“So what makes it fixed and not fixed? Can you... change one person's life as much as you want? As long as they're not part of the fixed event?”_

_“Oh, now that's a question...”_

* * *

“Your son?” Jack repeated. He started walking around Hardy, giving him an inspection that was almost indecent to watch. The Doctor shook his head, and Hardy glared at him, not that it stopped Jack for even a moment. Rose shook her head. He was impossible sometimes. “Impressive. I mean, still not sold on the clothes, but I could almost go for the scruff.”

“Don't even think about it,” the Doctor and Hardy said at the same time. Jack grinned.

“What, Doc? No interest in me as a son-in-law?”

“Not particularly, no,” the Doctor said, and Rose tried not to laugh, though it was not really the time for jokes. Then again, they made jokes all the time when they shouldn't, when the worst possible things were happening. “Jack, you're _wrong._ So wrong that you make us both physically ill.”

Rose frowned. “What? Since when? He never did before. You're lying. Why would you lie about Jack? What, are you jealous?”

“No,” Hardy said, giving Jack a look of disgust. “He is... unnatural. I've sat across from serial killers and rapists and the worst this planet has to offer, and none of them bothered me the way he does.”

“Yeah,” the Doctor agreed. “Fixed point in time. Fact. Shouldn't exist, but he does. Not quite like you, mind you, but the part of you that is Time Lord knows he's wrong. Your physiology rebels against it, but there's nothing we can do about it.”

“What?” Rose repeated. “What does that mean?”

“Really not that important,” Jack told her. “Can we go back to the Doctor having a son? Because I know that I tried to interest the Doctor in some dancing, and so did you for that matter, and he wasn't interested, but now he's got a son? Fully grown, even. Nicely grown.”

“Make another pass at me, and it'll be the last you make,” Hardy told him. Jack frowned. Hardy snorted. “I'm aware you can't die. That's what your fixed point means. That doesn't mean you'd get to enjoy your eternity, though.”

“Hey, I was just—you'd do that?” Jack asked. “Somehow I find that hard to believe of the Doctor's son. He's more open-minded than you are, that's for sure.”

Hardy folded his arms over his chest. “I watched a man like you ooze false charm at everyone he met in a pub once. Vice figured him for a prostitute or a thief.”

“Guess you could say I've been both,” Jack admitted. “Never actually been sentenced to death for either crime, though.” 

“He was a sociopath,” Hardy finished. “He charmed them into leaving with him. They were never seen again. Not in one piece, anyway.”

Rose shuddered. “That's horrible.”

“And yet not the worst he's seen,” the Doctor said, making Rose wonder just what all he had seen in Hardy's mind or if he was making that up because he hadn't been in his son's head for very long and was supposed to be making barriers. “Right. Enough of that. We have several problems to address, and I do believe I was in the middle of one before we found Jack here, wasn't I?”

“The shadow,” Rose prompted. “It does have another name, doesn't it?”

“Um... yes. I think so.”

“You think so?” Rose repeated, frowning. “Doctor, I know that... Well, none of this is exactly simple or easy, but you usually know the names of things. This... it's really bothering you, isn't it?”

“Bothering him?” Hardy snorted. “I'm the one that should be bothered. Him and his damned preservation of timelines.”

Rose choked. “No. Doctor, you can't. He's your son. He's Sarah Jane's son. He's got a daughter. You can't just... erase him from existence.”

The Doctor looked at Hardy. “You can't actually think that I'd _want_ to do that. I know we just met, but you know what it means to me. Being the only one—”

“No getting soppy on me,” Hardy said, but the Doctor went over and hugged him anyway. Rose bit her lip, watching with eyes that were getting a little damp. She didn't know how, but she was going to stop this. The Doctor was not losing his son.

She looked over at Jack. She needed to know what he knew. Now.

* * *

“Kind of beautiful, ain't it?” Rose asked, and Jack looked at her with a frown. He knew that tone of voice. She was angling for something, and he knew it. “Or is your brain so twisted you want that to be something it's not?”

Jack shook his head. He'd had his eyes opened by the last year. The way that the Doctor had been with the Master, refusing to kill him, begging him to regenerate, and even crying when that sick bastard died—Jack didn't want to understand it. He hated the Master. Everyone who remembered the Year that Never Was did. Except the Doctor. Even after everything the Master had done, though, the Doctor had begged him to stay, not wanting to be alone.

Now he wasn't alone, and the person who made him not alone was not only as hot as the Doctor, he was sane. Oh, sure, he had threatened to make Jack's immortality miserable, but that would have only lasted through one death anyway. No, this one was worth keeping around.

“Wait, did you say he had a daughter?” Jack asked. “How did that happen?”

“Oh, the usual way, I expect,” the Doctor said. “And no asking for details. That is something you don't need to know. And I _definitely_ do not need to know.”

“Nice to see you're like just about every parent in that respect,” Jack said. “Well, every parent I've met since coming to the past. Back when I was a Time Agent, well... It was a much different story.”

The Doctor shook his head. “We have other things to worry about besides parenting clichés. Fractured timeline, missing emotion eating shadow—”

“Child killer in the TARDIS?” The Doctor's son prompted, and the Doctor's eyes widened, his hands going into his hair.

“Of course,” The Doctor said, doing that bounding around while talking thing he did when he was thinking aloud. Jack smiled. That was the kind of thing he wanted to see from the Doctor. Not anything from the Year that Never Was. “Joe Miller. That's the answer. _Allons-y,_ Alec.”

“Don't call me Alec.”

“Alec?” Jack asked, mulling it over. It had a sort of ring to it, and if he went into meanings, that was kind of fitting for the Doctor's son. “I like it.”

“Well, I don't, so shut it,” Alec said, and Jack exchanged a grin with Rose before following the others into the TARDIS. He stopped just inside the doorway, looking over at the man tied to the railing. Bound and gagged. That was definitely new.

“That's new. Trying out a bit of a fetish this time around, Doc?”

“Oi,” the Doctor muttered, shaking his head as he stopped by the center console. “Why did she let you on board?”

“I feel the love,” Jack said. “We already did this once. Well, for you it hasn't happened, but she did the running thing before. It did not go so well for us.”

“I'm for shoving you back out,” Alec muttered, leaning over the console next to the Doctor. “Damned heart condition was less annoying.”

“In Jack's defense, it might not be just him,” the Doctor said, clapping his son on the back. “Notice anything about your friend over there?”

“Don't call him that,” Alec said. He turned around, frowning at the man stuck to the railing. “The shadow found its way back to him? Great. Doesn't anyone around here know how to shut a bloody door?”

Jack looked at Rose. “Is he always like that?”

“Yup,” she said.

“Almost like... best of both worlds,” Jack said. “The first him we knew in the second him's body. I could _so_ go for this.”

“Jack,” the Doctor said in warning. He shook his head, turning back to the man bound to the railing. “Now what we have here? Thousands of people in this sleepy little town, most of them actually sleeping, but you come back here where you know you'll be caught, and for what?”

“You know he can't answer you if he's gagged.”

“Excellent point, Miller. Thank you for stating and also missing the obvious,” Alec said, looking back at the doorway. The woman from earlier stood there, a teenage boy at her side. “Mrs. Latimer?”

“Your mother insisted on making her tea. Something about free radicals and tannin,” Miller answered, shaking her head and grimacing. “She needs a proper doctor—”

“Oi,” the Doctor protested, right on cue. “Just because I refuse to be bogged down by a devotion only to your medical science does not make me less than a proper doctor. I am the Doctor. I'm better than dozens of those other doctors you could have. And I've already shown that. Mind you, none of you were around to witness my hard work, but I assure you it was brilliant. You don't go reintroducing a binary vascular system into a body without a few hiccups along the way. You may have noticed that she stopped bleeding, and she did regain consciousness. Eventually. Her being stubborn is nothing to do with me.”

Miller rolled her eyes, and Jack smiled at her. She frowned, pulling her son closer to her even as he protested. “I know they said they knew you, but... were you working with Joe?”

“Joe?” Jack asked. The Doctor and his son pointed in unison to the man tied to the railing. “Oh. Him. Yeah, no. Never met him before. Bit of a shame, but then again... you said he killed a child and even I have standards.”

“What, that it breathes?” Alec scoffed, and Jack was all set to give him a wounded look when Rose chimed in.

“Not all aliens do, you know,” she said. “Breathe. Not like us, at least. And with him...”

“Hey,” Jack protested. She grinned at him, and he opened his arms, letting her come over and hug him again. He knew he shouldn't, timelines and all, but he'd missed her. “You big tease.”

“You big flirt.”

He smiled at her, looking up to see the Doctor's expression, and that made him smile all over again.

“Before Miller over there interrupted you, you were in the middle of questioning that thing,” Alec prompted, and the Doctor looked over at him, nodding his head in agreement. “They're not... Vashta Nerada, are they?”

“How do you know about the Vashta Nerada?” the Doctor asked, frowning, and then he almost hit himself in the head. “Of course. They're everywhere, even on Earth. And you, brilliant detective that you are, I imagine you dealt with them more when someone went walking in the dark and never came back, hmm?”

“It was a possibility,” Alec answered, not committing to it. “Officially they're just missing.”

“And you couldn't prove their fate even if it was the Vashta Nerada,” the Doctor said, sounding rather regretful at that. “Still, that's not what it is, as its food is emotions. It's not a swarm of microscopic carnivores, either. That is a single entity, there, that has attached itself to Mr. Miller.”

“Are you sure that's what it is?” Jack asked. “I've never heard of anything like that.”

“Well, you wouldn't have done, would you?” the Doctor asked, grinning in that manic way of his. “They're not violent, and they can only _prod_ for actions, trying to make stronger, more intense emotions in order to feed off of them.”

“So the real danger is in them pushing someone too far in anger or... um... lust?” Rose asked, pulling away from Jack and running her hands over her arms. “That's what you meant when you said it was mostly harmless.”

“Yup,” the Doctor said.

“Oh, bollocks,” Alec muttered. “Not again, Miller. Don't you dare.”

* * *

Ellie sat herself down on the floor, trying to make her stomach still, but when she thought of an alien intruding on all her intimate moments with Joe, the idea that it could have _pushed_ for them, that it had fed off their love and happiness, that made her sick, as sick as she'd been when she found out that Joe had killed Danny.

She put her head down on her knees, not wanting to look at anyone.

“Mum?”

“She'll be fine,” the Doctor said, and Ellie lifted her head. If she wasn't so bloody nauseous, she'd tell him off for that. “Just... needs a bit of time to process. You could run along and find Sarah Jane. Ask her to give some of that tea to all of us. We've got a lot of work to do yet. Though, when I say work I don't mean work so much as—”

“You're barmy,” Tom told him, and the Doctor stared at him.

“No, I am brilliant,” the Doctor said. “Though I am rather starting to think that there are entirely too many people in my TARDIS. Should do something about that. I was thinking about a jaunt to Cardiff, but no, should deal with the overcrowding first.”

“There's lots of space here,” Tom said. “Those halls go on forever. You could get lost in this place.”

“People have on multiple occasions,” Sarah Jane said, coming back into the room with Beth at her side. “I never admit to how many times it happened to me. Well, now. I see we've gained more company. I recognize the one from the papers, of course, but who are you?”

“Captain Jack Harkness,” he said, giving her a salacious grin and holding out his hand. “And who might you be, you wonderful woman?”

“I'm married,” Beth said, frowning and backing away from him, coming closer to Ellie and Tom. “And I don't know who you are, but if you were with Joe—you just stay away from me, you hear me? Stay away. There are fourteen knives in that hut. I've counted them. I'll use them if I have to.”

“Easy, now,” Jack began, holding up his hands. “I'm not going to hurt anyone. And I am not working with Joe. We've never met. I was just enjoying a bit of harmless flirting—”

“Says you,” Hardy muttered, and Jack looked back at him.

“Oh, come now. It's not like I was trying to seduce _you_ this time.”

Hardy's expression remained cold, and he folded his arms over his chest. “That's my mother.”

“Your... mother...” Jack said, swallowing. He looked over at the Doctor. “She's... you... that's the woman you had a son with?”

“Impossible,” Beth said. “You're all insane. If that's his mother, then... That doesn't make any sense.”

“Too many people in the TARDIS,” the Doctor said. “Definitely too many.”

“We should get Beth home,” Sarah Jane said. “And I suppose we could drop off Ellie and Tom as well. You might have a difficult time getting Daisy off the ship. I think she's taken quite a shine to this place, as the TARDIS has to her.”

The Doctor smiled, patting the console. “That's a girl. Well, then, we'll start by doing a couple quick stops. Mind you, I think we do have to go back to the problem everyone seems to keep distracting me from. Namely one Joe Miller.”

“Simple solution,” Hardy said. “Drop him into the event horizon of a black hole.”

Ellie blinked. Had he just said what she thought he'd said, or was that the accent? Or had she completely lost her mind? She did blame him for this, she did. This was Hardy's doing. Or was it Joe's? 

“What?”

“That bastard got away with killing a child. Eleven years old. They tried him and let him go. Can't bring him back for another trial. The town thought they'd won when they ran him out, but he came back. He hurt the mother of that child. He abducted my daughter— _my_ daughter.” Hardy stopped, taking a breath and pulling back on his anger. She'd seen worse tirades from him. This one was tame. “Can't let him go. He'll keep coming back. He'll go after Miller's sons again. He'll go after another child.”

“He's right,” Ellie whispered. “It's never going to end.”

“Well, not if you pop him in a black hole. That is... it would end for you. It wouldn't end for him. That's practically eternity, that is,” the Doctor said. “You remember that black hole we saw, Rose? We witnessed solar systems disintegrating, but it took thousands—millions—of years for that to happen.”

“So he just hangs there in space?” Beth asked. “Is that even possible?”

“Like eternal damnation,” Hardy told her, and Beth smiled grimly.

“Sounds about right,” Beth said. “For what he did to my boy, it sounds right.”

“You can't do that,” Tom said, and Ellie pulled him close to her. She agreed with them, angry as she was with Joe, but she had also loved him. He was Tom's father. Fred's father. They couldn't do this. Tom was right.

“We won't,” Rose said. “I'm sure the Doctor has another plan.”

“Of course he does,” Jack agreed. “Though... out of curiosity, why did you pick that one? Any particular... reason? Or influence, maybe?”

“No.”

“Oh, Alec, of course there was. Or have you forgotten how you chose it to spite your father?” Sarah Jane asked. She grimaced. “Not the Doctor. I mean... Alec and my husband always had a bit of a... difficult relationship. Argued almost constantly. Alec chose that black hole analogy to prove a point—eternal damnation was possible—and completely scientific. Contrary little thing.”

“Ah, don't get soppy now,” Hardy warned, but his eyes showed his affection for his mother all the same.

“Really?” Jack asked.

“Why would I joke about that?”

“No reason, just...” Jack fidgeted under everyone's gaze. “I had a hard time believing that was what he'd done to the gaseous predator. Someone else... didn't. He loved it. He used it as proof that someone wasn't the saint he'd led us all to believe.”

The Doctor swallowed. “That's what happened in your timeline?”

“Pieces of it. I can't tell you more than that,” Jack said. “You know I can't. I'm still trying to understand why I'm here. This time, this moment, it was locked into my vortex manipulator, but I couldn't tell you why.”

“All right,” Beth said. “You can't take him to a black hole. Maybe we can dump him on a boat to America or France or just somewhere where he can't come back and bother us. I don't care. Oh, I should get home to Mark and Chloe and Lizzie...”

“And we will do that,” the Doctor said. “Just a few flips of a switch and—oh, no. No, no, no...”

“Doctor?”

“Tell me your ship isn't hijacking us again,” Ellie said, about to tighten her grip on her son when she saw the Doctor moving toward Hardy.

And then that knob collapsed. Again.

“Bloody hell. I thought you'd fixed him,” Ellie snapped, rushing toward Hardy. She knelt next to him, helping him to sit up even as he groaned and tried to shove her away, moaning in pain. “Hardy, if that idiot—”

“Call them ghosts... not ghosts... metal,” Hardy said, grabbing his head and writhing in place. Ellie glared at the Doctor. If Hardy's head exploded because of what that wanker did, she was going to make him pay for it.

“Alec,” Sarah Jane said, joining them. “Alec, please. Doctor, what's happening?”

“Ghosts. Metal ghosts,” Jack said, a bit of horror in his voice. “Tell me that's not what I think it is.”

“Do something, you wanker,” Ellie said, reaching for him. “Stop this.”

“I can't,” the Doctor said. She glared at him, but he just shook his head. “I can't take this pain away. This isn't like before. This is... so much worse.”

“Doctor,” Sarah Jane said, and he winced like she'd smacked him, which Ellie was about to do herself.

“The other timeline is asserting itself,” the Doctor said. That was all he said out loud, but it wasn't like none of them heard the rest of it, all he wasn't saying but was at the same time. She did. She wished she didn't, but she did.

“And that...” Ellie swallowed. “That's going to kill him, isn't it?”


	17. Time for Solutions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone deals with the implications of two converging timelines.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I may have overdone the Doctor Who a bit. There is a lot more source material, even if it doesn't all deal with Ten, and there is so much that can be done with episodes and all that draws at my brain while I'm trying to get this one to cooperate into an ending because I have flashbacks and history to explain and things to resolve, too.
> 
> And I get that scary feeling like I won't get there and can't and that I took on too much again, as usual.

* * *

_“You never interfere with a person's personal timeline.”_

_“No.”_

_“What if that person needed it?”_

_“Still wouldn't.”_

_“What if you needed it?”_

_“Still can't.”_

* * *

“That's not happening,” Beth said. She felt much better after Sarah Jane gave her tea, though she wasn't sure that was just tea. She wasn't sure why she was alive after her confrontation with Joe, but she was glad. Lizzie and Chloe still had a mother. Still, she was confused. This place was wrong. All of it was. The rooms that shouldn't be here, the tea that was more than tea, and all of these conversations that confused her. She wanted to leave, but she wanted to understand.

This was like Danny's death all over again. She had to know what happened, had to know why, but she didn't want to all the same because knowing who killed Danny hurt in ways she hadn't thought it could. Joe's betrayal went deep, and it had almost cost her her best friend because of her own pain and anger.

She looked at Ellie again, seeing her holding onto Hardy, and she shook her head. Something had to be done about all this. She didn't care how crazy it was.

“What you said doesn't make any sense,” Beth began, a bit disgusted with herself all over again. She'd done fifteen bloody years on a wheel, and she hadn't learned a thing, had she? “It can't do that, can it? Time just... erase other time. That's what you're saying, isn't it? God, I should have finished school—no, I don't regret Chloe. I love my little girl, but—”

“I didn't finish my A levels, either,” the blonde told her, but that wasn't much comfort, even with her hand on her arm. She seemed sincere, but she was still what, twenty? What did she know about regret? “And not for as good a reason. Just a bloke. A jerk, really.”

Beth gave her a look, not sure what to think of that because her mind, once pretty boring and bland, the housewife and tourist guide, was destroyed by the death of her son. This jerk, was he like Joe? Or worse?

The girl shrugged. “Jimmy Stone. Worst decision of my life.”

“So far, at least,” the Doctor said. “Remains to be seen if joining me won't top that. Almost has quite a few times, and don't say it hasn't.”

“I thought you said that prophecy was a lie.”

“Oh, I did, and it is,” the Doctor assured her, a bit fast on that one. Beth wasn't sure it was a lie, and the Doctor wasn't, either, though that wasn't really the issue now, was it? Or did whatever prophecy this was have something to do with Hardy on the ground and him dying?

No. Hardy had been surprisingly good to her and her family. He'd brought them her son's killer. He'd found someone she had started to think no one would ever find. And she'd believed that Ellie must have known and covered it up or even if she hadn't... Could Ellie have turned on Joe?

“I don't understand,” Beth said, turning back to the Doctor. “I don't understand _any_ of this. Is this a joke? Like your talk about a black hole because you can't actually do that. I like damnation for him, but you can't do that.”

“Um,” the blonde began. “He could. This is a space ship, and we've been to them before. He said his people invented them, and he might not have been lying about that—”

“Oi,” the Doctor said. “I don't lie. Well, I do on occasion omit a few things, and I won't answer questions I know will cause panic, and the psychic paper... well, that lets people see what they want to see. All a matter of belief. I'm not responsible for that part, and anyway, sometimes it really is kinder to—hold on, what was I saying?”

“That you don't lie.”

“Exaggerates a lot, though,” Jack said, and the Doctor frowned at him. Jack shrugged. “You do tend to tell everyone the world's ending and it doesn't, but then again, you're the one that stops it from ending, so I guess it's not so much an exaggeration as a what if.”

“You're wrong, then,” Beth said, and it was a comfort, in a strange way. “This thing... it can't actually kill him, can it?”

“I'm pretty sure there's a way out of it,” Jack said, giving her a grin, but the look on that Doctor's face was not at all comforting. He wasn't denying what Jack said, but he wasn't confirming it, either. Not in words. It was on his face, though, pain and grief. She knew that look. She'd seen it on herself and on Mark any time one of their kids was hurt, and it was permanently there now, with Danny gone.

This was a man who knew he was losing his son.

Hardy shuddered, clawing at his hair like it hurt him. “Footprint... not like... boot.”

“You can do something for him, can't you?” Beth asked. Even if this Doctor couldn't save his son, he could still help him with the pain at least. That's what all doctors did. They'd done that with her mum, when she got so sick after Danny died.

“Daisy,” Hardy ground out against the pain, trying to force himself up out of Ellie's hold. “Daisy.”

“Shh,” Sarah Jane said. “I'll go to her. You stay put. Just... try and rest. “Please, Alec. I know... Just... hold on. I'll get Daisy.”

“Oh, bloody hell. She'll be like this, too, won't she?” Ellie demanded, looking over at the Doctor. “And she won't know why or—”

“The effects may not be as strong with her. He's only half, after all, and she's less,” the Doctor said. He knelt next to Hardy. “There is one thing I know might help, but we have to go into the vortex for that. If we're there, you're out of space and time, and you won't feel the changes. At least... not right away. As soon as we entered normal time again, you might.”

“You want,” Hardy swallowed, but whatever had been hurting him before seemed to be easing because he wasn't thrashing about now. “Keep me... in the bloody vortex... for the rest of my life?”

“It is one solution,” the Doctor said. “And it's not so horrible as all that, trust me. The TARDIS can build endless rooms, perfect places for you and for Daisy...”

“That's your idea of saving him?”

“It at least buys time until I can think of something better,” the Doctor told her. “Right, then. We need the vortex. Which brings me back to the overcrowding issue. Beth—it is Beth, isn't it? You need to get back home to your family. Same with Ellie. So we do a quick little hop, and we'll drop you off before the rest of us take a bit longer of a trip.”

“What?” Ellie asked. “You're... but... you just made it sound like... we won't ever see him again.”

Hardy grunted, shifting in Ellie's arms. “'S what you want, Miller. Handshake and gone.”

She shook her head. “Oh, you wanker.”

Beth frowned. “What about Joe? What are you doing with him? Because if you're banishing him somewhere, then... Then Mark and Chloe and I all deserve to be there.”

“Oh,” the Doctor said, frowning. “Even if we just take him to France? It's like another planet after all. That works, doesn't it? No need to be on the TARDIS at all. Right? Right. Home, then. Just a quick hop, skip, and a jump. _Allons-y.”_

* * *

“We need to talk,” Rose hissed in a low voice to Jack, and he frowned at her. “Now. Come on, while everyone's distracted taking Beth home.”

Jack looked at the Doctor, watching him bounce around as he programmed coordinates. He didn't need to do all that for as short a move as they were doing, but Jack figured he was showing off as well as distracting everyone. He didn't intend to take any of the others with them when they got rid of Joe Miller and the apparent hitchhiker he'd picked up, and Jack knew of a few ways he could help with that, though he wasn't sure that the Doctor would agree. Even Rose might object.

He took a breath and shook his head. He should have left already, as soon as he knew he was dealing with a Doctor who didn't know him. He was due for some retcon of his own.

Rose grabbed his arm, nodding to the door. Jack frowned, but she nodded again, insistent. He'd forgotten about that, just how forceful she could be. Jack shook his head. He wasn't going. He needed to discuss that bit of retcon for the others, seeing as how way too many of them had seen things they shouldn't and weren't ready for. 

And they'd seen something impossible—the Doctor's son. A son that shouldn't exist and according to what Jack knew— _didn't_ exist. The Doctor himself was a legend and a myth, but his child? That shouldn't be possible at all, which meant a lot of trouble and headaches, and he wasn't sure how this would play out, other than that keeping the paradox in the vortex, protected from time might just be the only solution. Jack had to admit that it was a lousy one. He gave the Doctor and Alec another look, and that time she shoved him.

Jack sighed, stumbling toward the door. He could have fought Rose off, but he knew he wouldn't avoid this forever, and getting this conversation over with now was probably better than later.

She pointed to the first door in the hall, and Jack nodded, going into the room. She followed him in afterward. He didn't figure she was aiming for a specific room, just somewhere where they were both of the Doctor's hearing.

This certainly wasn't much of a room.

“Never been in here before, but then again, it's the TARDIS. Thousands of rooms here that I haven't been in,” Jack said. “I don't suppose you're interested in christening it?”

She folded her arms over her chest. “Jack. Stop it.”

He shrugged, leaning against the wall. He couldn't help trying—this was Rose and he'd wanted it from the moment they met. This Rose, though, was older and more mature, which had a different sort of appeal altogether. That, and it was a good distraction. “It's a better idea than the one you're about to voice. Come on, Rose. You know better than anyone after traveling with him. There are rules you don't break.”

She folded her arms over her chest. “And what were you doing in 1941?”

He shook his head. Of course she'd bring that up. He would be in trouble for his less than savory acts—and not any of the really fun ones. “That's not the same thing. When I was a Time Agent, we had rules, too. And one thing I did learn—the hard way—was that the more you did to change the future, the more you ended up bringing it about.”

“This isn't the future, though,” Rose said. “Well, it is, but it's not just the future. It's the past. It's all over the place, but if you tell me what you know, then we can stop this.”

“It doesn't have to be the end,” Jack said, knowing that he didn't want the Doctor losing his family. He'd lost so many that he cared about since the gamestation. Everyone he loved died, and while he'd tried to keep it just to lust, he was only human, more or less. He still loved. He still lost. “You know the Doctor found a way to help him already.”

She snorted. “And since when would anyone be content with that? I love the TARDIS, but I wouldn't stay in her forever. Neither would he. And the minute we go back to normal space, the same thing would happen.”

Jack sighed. He knew that. He knew it almost too well. He'd dealt with a few shifting timelines in his years as an agent. “It will right itself. Time has a way of doing that. Like he's probably told you—there are fixed points. Those can't change.”

“His son isn't a fixed point,” Rose reminded Jack. “He said it before—it's impossible. Only it isn't. And it can't—look, he saves the planet. He saves hundreds of planets. Millions of lives. Some of them never even know it. They don't know him, and he doesn't know them, but he saves them. And he does it alone. Every time. All alone.”

Jack nodded. He'd seen that for himself. The Doctor was willing to sacrifice everything to save the world. It was very attractive. “He's not alone. He's got you. He... Well, I used to think I'd go back with him if I ever found him, but I have this team, and they need me.”

It was wrong, Jack knew, lying to Rose about how long she'd be with the Doctor—that time had to be ending soon—but even without her, the Doctor carried on.

“It's not the same,” Rose said. “He told me once that humans, we wither and decay. His son isn't human, not completely. He could live forever if not for this stupid paradox or whatever it is, and it isn't even about that. It's about him being the last of the Time Lords.”

Jack winced. Damn. That was a dangerous thing. That had led him to do so many stupid things to save the Master, who did _not_ deserve to be saved. He'd let so many suffer because he wasn't willing to do what he should have from the beginning. He'd tried to save the Master instead of shooting him when he had the chance.

“If he has his son, he's not alone like that.”

Jack nodded. That he understood. “I know. And I want that for him, too. I really do. I just—”

The door opened, and the woman from before stepped in. Rose looked at her, worried. “Sarah Jane, is Daisy—”

“She's asleep,” Sarah Jane answered. “I think the TARDIS may be responsible, but it's probably better this way. She doesn't know what her father knows, and he's in a lot of pain.”

Rose grimaced. “I'm sorry. I want there to be more we can do that just hopping in the vortex.”

“She means to alter the timeline,” Jack said. “I've been trying to explain why that's a bad idea, but you might have more luck than me.”

Sarah Jane shook her head. “You are asking the wrong person. When the Krillitane made that offer, I said no. I talked him out of it, but this? I can't do that. I could deny myself eternal youth and the opportunity to stay with the Doctor forever, I could ask Rose to do the same, I could even ask the Doctor to keep his own people dead—because I know that not all of them were like him. The Master...”

Jack winced. “So you met him, too.”

She nodded. “I did. And I could ask the Doctor not to undo what he'd done and change the universe, but this... I'm not strong enough, not selfless enough. Because that's my son. My granddaughter. I can't accept that they would never exist at all.”

“Well, now wait,” Jack said, trying to be of comfort to her. “As far as I know, there's only one contradiction in the timeline that says his son wasn't there. That means that the timeline could finish resetting itself at any moment. He won't have to stay in the vortex long. All he has to do is fix one event. The mess with the Family of Blood. The Doctor used the chameleon arch on himself to outrun them—”

“The what?” Sarah Jane asked, frowning. “I've never heard of anything like that.”

“Neither have I,” Rose said. “The Doctor never mentioned it to me.”

“That doesn't really matter,” Jack told them. “What matters is that the Doctor used it to turn himself human so they couldn't track him. They did find him in 1913. He had to change back to stop them, but if he uses the arch on his son and granddaughter before the Family come after him, they'll all be fine.”

“No,” Sarah Jane said, shaking her head and looking even more pained that before. “They won't. That's what he meant. You can't do that to Alec.”

Jack frowned. “Of course he can. Yes, he risks leading them to them, but it can still be done—”

“No.” Sarah Jane shook her head. “Alec lived his entire life on Earth.”

“So he takes the arch as a child—”

“And completely alters _his_ timeline,” Sarah Jane said, sighing. “Everything in Alec's life has been shaped by who he is, by being half Time Lord. He never knew, I couldn't tell him, but that doesn't make it any less a part of his life. He used the event horizon of a black hole as an argument for eternal damnation to spite his father at seven. He was running from alien slavers at six. He built a supercomputer at twelve—”

“A supercomputer?” Jack repeated. He'd tried and failed to replicate the kind of technology he was used to over the years, never with any great success, even after joining Torchwood. That was better left to people like Toshiko. “At twelve?”

“It was all I could do to keep him from making his own sonic screwdriver.” Sarah Jane gave a bit of a smile at that. “Alec is... brilliant. He's solved crimes that no one else could, ones that involved aliens and ones that didn't. And he's rubbish with people, if you haven't noticed. It was rather in spite of that that he and Tess got together. I'm still not sure how it happened, but the point is—he could very well _never_ meet her. Never have Daisy. You change Alec's DNA, and you change him, every little event of his life. So, no, Jack, the chameleon arch won't work. It won't save him. Not in any way that matters. And that assumes that you can even use it on a child. Alec was still a baby when the Doctor gave him to me—”

“Wait. You're not his biological mother?”

She shook her head. “No, I'm not. I don't know who that person is or if there even was one. I do know which regeneration brought the boy to me—this one—but that's all.”

“He's still in the Doctor's future, isn't he?” Jack asked with a wince. “Damn it. He really will be wiped out of existence.”

* * *

“If I go out there to get Fred, he's going to leave us all here, isn't he?” Ellie asked, hissing the words into Hardy's more or less captive ear. He looked up at her, and she knew he was trying to find a way to deny it, but he was too worn out to summon words. For Hardy, that was bad. He'd been on death's door more than once and still managed to snap at her and solve cases. “Your father's more of a knob than you are.”

Hardy managed a small smile to that, and she shook her head.

“It's not funny,” she told him, but he just closed his eyes. She could still feel someone watching her, but she refused to look at Joe. Even if it wasn't true, that lie his defense had used at the trial, he didn't need to know that. She didn't care how much it hurt him. She didn't ever want to look at him again.

Then again, there was Tom to consider.

He poked his head back inside the doors. “Mum, it is a box outside. Just a box. Huge rooms. Thousands of halls. But outside...”

“Yes, I know,” Ellie said. It was insane and impossible, but that just made it a TARDIS, apparently. “Please go in to your brother.”

“Mum, he's an alien,” Tom said, and Ellie was tempted, again, to smack her son. Though this wasn't like her fury when Tom had testified for Joe, she still wanted to hurt something. “An _alien.”_

“Yes, Tom, I know. Would you please go see about your brother?” Ellie asked, sighing. She waited for him to grumble his way off and looked down at Hardy again. “Are you at all able to move yet?”

He nodded. “Daisy's asleep. That helps.”

The Doctor came over and held out a hand. Hardy took it, and between the two of them, they got him on his feet. He almost fell, and the Doctor caught him, holding him up. “Easy now. We've got a bit yet before we leave.”

“I'm onto you,” Ellie said. “I know you're planning on leaving all of us behind as soon as you can.”

“Oi,” the Doctor said. “I resent that. Daisy and Hardy have to stay in the TARDIS, and Rose, well, she wants to be here, not sure I could get rid of her. Jack has to go, he's in the wrong time period. Beth's family is here, she was never meant to be a part of this, and she should go.”

Ellie folded her arms over her chest. “And what is he going to do to Joe?”

“I'll make sure he never harms anyone again,” the Doctor said. “You have my word on that. Now, you should probably go to your sons.”

She looked over at Hardy. “Is this really what you want to do?”

“As opposed to what, Miller?” Hardy asked, still needing the Doctor supporting him to stay upright. “When I... when I came to Broadchurch, I had a purpose.”

“Sandbrook. And then Danny.”

He nodded. “Got none of that now.”

She winced. “Hardy—”

“Being here spares Daisy pain. That's all that matters,” Hardy insisted. He put a hand to his own head, and Ellie winced again.

“This isn't right. It isn't you. You are an irritating wanker, worst I've met in my life, but you... You are so wasted in hiding out. You should be solving cases.”

“Let you in on a secret,” the Doctor said. “That's what I do. Well, they're not 'cases,' per say, but they are sort of the same thing. Adventures. Mysteries. Plots of world domination. Puzzle them out, stop them. All across the universe. And time, don't forget time. I just need some to figure out the next step, and then you know... he can do what he does best across the universe.”

She looked at Hardy. “He's lying, isn't he?”

“About what he does? No. She said it was like that when she was with him,” Hardy answered. “Go on, Miller. Your sons are waiting.”

“You really think I'm gonna leave you?”

He frowned. “Why the bloody hell wouldn't you?”

Ellie tried to come up with a good answer to that, but before she could, that American came bumbling back into the room.

“Doc, I think we should talk about a few things.”

“No,” the Doctor said immediately, moving away from Hardy as he addressed the other man. “You're not to tell me about the alternate timeline. I can't know. That's how it is, Jack, and you know it.”

“You okay with that?” Jack asked Hardy. “Really okay with it?”

“I now remember Cybermen in London. What do you bloody think?” Hardy countered, and the American winced. “Go away. You're making it worse. Damned fixed point.”

The other man rolled his eyes. “It isn't even about that. It's about... forgetting.”

The Doctor tensed. “You want to drug them.”

Ellie stared at him. “What?”


	18. Time for a Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor takes them into the vortex, and some enlightenment comes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well... there's this part of me that's convinced the story has gone all wrong, and I tried and couldn't not take things as a sign of that, but I've done my best to put it on track again. Including, I might add, rewatching Broadchurch and listening to its music. 
> 
> I also have to do a bit of a warning as my work schedule this week is horrendous (and I mean that, no exaggeration there) so I may not update as often as I have been or would like because if I survive this week, I'll be down sick with something for sure.
> 
> Still, this is where I wanted part of the story to go, so there is that.

* * *

_“You said one person could change history. One simple, ordinary person.”_

_“So?”_

_“So maybe you need to change history for one simple, ordinary person.”_

_He sighed. “You know I can't.”_

* * *

_“Bloody UNIT,” Tess muttered, giving the cabinet a kick in annoyance. “They've taken over our case. Again. They shouldn't even be involved. If I find out who called them, I'll—”_

_“Let it go,” Hardy said, not looking at her. He added some notes to the file, wincing when he saw his handwriting. He stopped and rewrote the passage, forcing himself to make it legible for later. His mother had always smiled at the way he wrote, but she was about the only one who found it amusing. Certainly no one else found it useful._

_Tess sighed. “I will. We are, I mean. The boys want to go out and get drinks. Drown our sorrows.”_

_Hardy did look over at her then. She tried to smile at him, but she didn't quite manage it._

_“You could at least_ try _to get along with them,” Tess said, not for the first time. “This is a good chance. You don't have to do anything you wouldn't do at home—”_

_“I don't drink in public,” Hardy said. He hadn't done that in years, and only when an undercover assignment demanded it of him. Some things were too deeply entrenched to be changed. “Go on. Buy them a round on me.”_

_She sighed again, but she still waited as he dug the bills out of his wallet and passed them over to her. She took them, folding them up in her hand. “You could try making an effort, you know. You show them every day that you're brilliant, but never that you're human. That's all they need, to see you as you are, as more than a detective inspector.”_

_He frowned. “Why are you with me?”_

_“Oh, don't start. I don't want to fight with you,” she said, grabbing her coat and purse. “You are not taking your frustration about the case out on me. Thank God Daisy's at her friend's tonight. I'm going out. I'll be back late.”_

_He thought about repeating the question, explaining that it wasn't about tonight but about always, about why she'd married him and why she was still with him because he still wasn't sure what she'd ever seen in him, but he let her go._

_He turned back to his notes, cursing again when he saw his handwriting had gone to shit again. He shook his head as he started rewriting it. She hadn't noticed that, and it was best she didn't. These notes would be all remained after UNIT was done. Computerized records would be erased or sealed, and if he ever needed to consult this case, he had to have them, and they needed to be legible._

_“DI Hardy.”_

_He didn't look up. No point in it, even if he knew it was rude. He was always rude. He fiddled with his tie, hand on the pin his mother had given him and told him always to use. “Captain. I take it UNIT is done collecting what it needs?”_

_“We are. I just wanted to stop by and thank you for the call.”_

_Hardy grunted. “You have the proper containment for that thing. We don't. Simple enough.”_

_The captain shook her head. “Always a pleasure working with you. Perhaps next time you'll consider calling us before you arrest the alien?”_

_Hardy lifted his head and glared at her. “Not bloody likely. I solve my own cases, and I'm not responsible for your ineptitude. You want to be first on scene, then you had better show up before I do.”_

_“You know, the offer still stands.”_

_“I am never coming to work for UNIT,” Hardy said. “Now get out of my office.”_

_“Again, Detective Inspector, always a pleasure.”_

_He rolled his eyes, getting up to shut the door behind her. He went back to his desk and picked up his phone. He didn't wait for a greeting before speaking. “Why are all your contacts at UNIT bloody morons?”_

_“Oh, Alec,” his mother said, sighing. “You know that's not true.”_

_“I just did their job for them. Again. It's true.”_

_She laughed._

* * *

“You're not bloody drugging anyone,” Miller said, and the fixed point frowned. Hardy gave him a look. He really should have thought that one through before saying anything, even if it was the Doctor who'd made his intentions known to one of the most difficult women on the planet. “You won't, you hear me?”

“Of course we're not drugging anyone,” the Doctor said. “Though there are some who really can't handle what they've seen, but you're hardly the sort—actually, had we another TARDIS I think you'd make a fine companion—although it gets quite complicated with the children involved—though it might be easier for you than for your friend Beth. Actually, she might be someone who should forget because if she heard the part about time, well... I think she'd expect me to go back and change what happened.”

Hardy almost hit his father. That was a bloody stupid thing to say.

“You mean you could go back and prevent Danny's murder?”

“No,” the Doctor said. “I can't. Well... No, I can't. We've crossed timelines enough already, and if I were to go back, even if I left Alec behind, that would mean that I crossed his path before I was meant to cross his path which adds a paradox on top of a paradox, and we're already caught up in a mess of time that is getting worse as we speak.”

Miller frowned. “You mean what you saw in London. That Cyberwhatsit you said you saw.”

“I am going to have to forget that,” the Doctor said. “Unless it is about the alternate London where we left Mickey because that already happened. Yep. Cybermen took over London, we stopped them, and Mickey stayed. Said he wasn't the tin dog. Did you ever feel like a tin dog, Jack?”

“Um...”

“Leave K-9 out of this,” Hardy said, shaking his head. He didn't want to think about that or how much losing that dog had hurt back when he was still a child, not much older than Daisy was now. “We're supposed to be going into the vortex to buy you time to think, remember?”

“Yes, well,” the Doctor said, pulling on his ear, “it's your friend who's not leaving so we can.”

“Miller is not my friend,” Hardy said, and the Doctor snorted.

“He's right. We're not friends. That doesn't mean I'm letting you whisk him off to die, him or his daughter. You have to find another way.”

“That's the point of going into the vortex.”

Miller folded her arms over her chest and looked at Hardy. “Is that really going to stop it?”

He thought about it, and he thought about trying to lie, but she'd know. The way she was looking at him now, she'd definitely know. “No. He told you—it's a stop gap. Meant to buy time.”

“You wouldn't really let him... erase you from existence to preserve a timeline, would you?”

Hardy didn't much care what happened to him. He'd been beat down after Sandbrook, after losing Tess and Daisy, with his heart failing, and he'd accepted death back then so long as he could finish the Latimer case. Then when he survived that, he'd hung on to see Sandbrook resolved. Those things were done. Only one other mattered.

“Daisy. I'd fight to keep her.”

Miller nodded. “That'll have to do, then. Wait, why did the shift in timelines only affect you? And Daisy, I mean. You're a Time demi-Lord, and she's your daughter, but if the timelines are changing, why do only the two of you know it? I don't remember any metal men. Beth didn't. You could ask Joe, but I doubt he does. Tom doesn't, or he'd be terrified. So... why only you?”

“Excellent question, Ellie,” the Doctor said. “I think you might just have to stay. You ask good questions. Fantastic questions. The exact _right_ question.”

“What?”

* * *

“I don't understand, Beth,” Mark grumbled as she dragged him out of the house. “What is so bloody important we have to go out in the middle of the night to—”

“Dad,” Chloe said, “since when has there ever been a police box in our yard?”

Mark stopped, staring up at the blue thing that had appeared in their yard. Beth wasn't sure how else to describe it, but she'd known as soon as she got out of it a second time that she had to show it to her husband and her daughters. That was why she'd grabbed Lizzie and made sure to bully Chloe and Mark into coming out.

“You know what the best part is?” Tom asked, his younger brother in his arms. “It's bigger on the inside.”

Mark looked down at him. “Exactly what happened to you on that beach, lad?”

Beth shook her head. “He's not wrong, Mark. I've seen it. There are rooms in there like you wouldn't believe. And some you would. Kitchen was perfectly normal. Strange as that is.”

“Mum should be coming any minute now. She wanted me to check on Fred, had something to ask Hardy. The one guy who looks like him, he's an alien.”

Mark and Chloe both frowned at Tom and then looked to Beth. Mark was the one to speak first. “Are you high?”

Beth opened her mouth to speak when she heard the noise. She looked back at the blue box just in time to see it vanish. She stared, her mouth coming open as she did.

“Dad, what just happened?” Chloe asked.

Tom ran forward, almost dropping Fred as he did. “Where'd it go? My mum was on that thing. Where did it go?”

* * *

“What did you just do?” Ellie demanded, going to the door and yanking on it. Jack winced, knowing that if she got it open, it would be bad. He knew just from looking at the TARDIS that they were in the vortex, and he was pretty sure that she'd die if she got the doors open in here. She whirled back to face the Doctor. “Did you just kidnap me? My sons are down there. I have children back there, and they know I'm gone and—”

“If this works, we'll be back a few minutes after we left them,” the Doctor said, dismissing her concern with a wave of his hand. “Perfectly fine. And no going on about years. That wasn't my doing. That was the TARDIS. Mind of her own, she has. Now, where was I? Oh, yes, we're in the vortex. Buying time. That's... well, it's hilarious, actually, for a Time Lord. I need... Ooh, I need books. That's what I need.”

He went running off out of the room, leaving the three of them standing there. Jack shook his head. He still found the way this Doctor worked fascinating, but he wasn't so sure it was as charming for the others as it was for him.

“He's the only one that knows how to fly this thing, right?” Ellie asked, arms folded over her chest. “Am I going to have to drag his skinny arse back here so I can get home?”

The TARDIS made some kind of noise, and Alec reached over to the console, giving it a pat just like the Doctor did. Jack found himself smiling, even if he knew he was looking at a condemned man.

“No point in trying to drag him back,” Alec said. “He'll have locked the door, and unless she agrees with you—and she doesn't—you won't get him out of there.”

“So, I'm just stuck here, with you, while he buries himself in books?”

“Don't panic, Miller,” Alec told her. “It isn't over yet.”

“I've been kidnapped by your father who happens to be a nine hundred year old alien who looks almost exactly like you who has a ship that goes in time and space and who found out my husband who killed my son's best friend had some kind of alien hitchhiker on him and he's sitting over there watching all of this, and we're not supposed to panic?” She hit him. “When exactly are we supposed to panic?”

“Oh, trust me,” Jack told her. “There are definitely times for that. This is not one of them. Not yet. When the alarms start going off, yes. Now? Not so much.”

“Oh, I think I—”

“Where are we?” Rose interrupted, running back into the room. “Where's the Doctor?”

“That git went off to find books and left us all in here,” Ellie answered, annoyed. “Books. Kidnaps me and goes for a bloody book.”

“He once told me that books were the greatest weapon of them all,” Rose told her, but Ellie just glared at her. “Sarah Jane went to check on your daughter, by the way.”

Alec nodded. “Good.”

“Which brings us back to what I was trying to ask you before, Jack,” Rose said, and Jack winced. Now he was trapped with her again, but others were witness to it, and given Ellie's already upset state, it was going to get ugly. “What happened in the other timeline?”

“I can't tell you.”

“No, you can't tell the Doctor,” Rose corrected, and Jack frowned at her.

“Wait, is that what he meant?” Ellie asked. “He said it only changed for you and Daisy. Meaning that... You're the ones that change. No one else does? Is that even possible?”

Alec shrugged. “Not sure. Suppose I did dabble a bit in space time theory, but mostly when I got bored as a child. Never had much use for it after... well, after.”

“You sound like him.”

“I bloody well do not. Did my accent go anywhere? No. Then I don't sound like him.”

“It's that thing he keeps saying he wants to discuss with Sarah Jane. What happened when you were seventeen and all,” Rose said. “It's what made you a copper, right? What made you do the normal thing and avoid the aliens and everything unexplained that your mother was still involved in.”

“Not important,” Alec told her, still gruff.

“I think it—”

“No, but that's it,” Rose said, turning to Jack in excitement. “You don't tell the Doctor. You don't tell me. You don't alter either of our timelines or give us something to forget. You tell _him._ He's the one this centers around. He can still change it.”

Jack grimaced. “I don't think so. He saw them in London. Time has already changed.”

“Except I was in bloody Scotland at the time,” Alec muttered, rubbing at his head. Jack stared at him. “Don't look at me like that.”

“I was—you were in Scotland,” Jack repeated. “So what you actually saw was them in Scotland, not in London.”

“No, I was in Scotland,” Alec corrected with annoyance, but all Jack could do was frown. “2006, when it happened, I was in Scotland. With Daisy and Tess and my mother. My uncle's funeral. I was there. Bloody twats thought it was his ghost. And I was in London. There were more than ghosts there.”

Jack tensed, forcing himself to swallow.

“Bloody ridiculous,” Ellie said. “You couldn't have been in two places at once.”

“Except... he kind of could, and there's no risk of him creating a paradox by touching himself because he was far enough away,” Rose said. “No reapers, right?”

Jack nodded. “No reapers, but it still doesn't make sense. The Doctor would never let him do it.”

“The Doctor doesn't have to,” Rose said, pointing to the armband on Jack's wrist. He grimaced, about to explain that it wouldn't work, but she held up a hand. “When the Doctor explained parallel universes, he said that there were thousands of them created by little choices. Meaning that all we'd need to alter your timeline enough to make it so that both Hardy and his daughter survive is one choice. One moment. And can you honestly tell me that everything you've seen in that timeline is something you _want_ to see happen again? Because _I_ can't. I have seen wonderful, amazing things with the Doctor, but I've also seen death and destruction. There are people I can't bring back, but this—I can do this for the Doctor. I can save his family. You can, I mean. You just need one single event to change the course of things, making it so that he can live. So what is one event that could be altered to keep his timeline intact?”

Jack figured the obvious one was the one they'd already stumbled across, Canary Wharf. That day had set the Doctor down a darker path. He could tell that much even if he hadn't been able to do much talking with the Doctor or Martha afterward. The whole thing with the Family of Blood—Jack didn't think that would have happened if the Doctor hadn't lost Rose.

He would like to go further back, back to when Saxon started gaining power, but that _would_ kill the Doctor's son for sure, since the Master would never have allowed the Doctor's son to live. He'd have tortured him and his granddaughter to death in front of the Doctor as he did everyone else around them.

And if Alec could regenerate—oh, hell. The Master would kill him more than once.

“He knew,” Jack said, and everyone frowned at him. “No, I... I think I understand. Almost. I think I know why he gave you to Sarah Jane and had you live a human life.”

“You're just getting that now?” Ellie asked. “You really do think with the wrong part of your anatomy, don't you?”

“Hey,” Jack said, offended. “I actually might understand more of what's going on here than you do, lady. In fact, I know I do, being from the fifty-first century and a former Time Agent.”

“Oh, shut it,” Alec said, reaching over to take hold of Jack's arm.

“Getting frisky, are we?”

“Again, shut it,” Alec told him. “Primitive. Almost bloody useless.”

“That's very advanced where I come from,” Jack protested. “And since when do you get to be all sanctimonious? You were a human, or as good as one, for your entire life in the _twenty-first_ century, so it's not like you—”

“Time demi-Lord,” Rose said.

“Wanker,” Ellie said.

“Ignoring the lot of you,” Alec muttered, grabbing a tool off the console and pointing it at the vortex manipulator. Jack frowned.

“You know, I could take it off.”

“You can't die.”

“Yes, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt,” Jack said. “I'd really rather not blow up in the time vortex. And you know that you can't use that in here, so even if you did fix it—I have my doubts about that—you can't do anything until he takes us out of the vortex.”

“Miller, what's the first thing you learned about me?”

“That you're an irritating arse.”

“And the second?”

“You're one of the most stubborn men on the planet.”

“And?”

“Oh, bloody hell. I'm not saying you're brilliant. That your mum can do. She'll hold your hand and take you along and tell you how special you are, how you've always been, and I want my sons back, do you bloody hear me?”

Alec looked at her. “You're standing right next to us. Of course we heard you. Whole vortex can hear you with the way you go on.”

“I hate you.”

Jack shook his head. The Doctor might need someone to reassure him or restrain him or give him hope, but his son seemed to need someone to argue with. “Are we done now?”

“Yes,” Alec said, pulling the vortex manipulator off Jack's arm.

“Let me guess,” Ellie said. “You just broke that again.”

* * *

“Easy now,” Daisy heard her gran say as she helped her sit up. “How is your head? Are you feeling all right?”

“Feels like that time Daniella got hold of her father's whiskey and put it in our punch,” Daisy said, then she looked over at her gran with fear. “Don't tell Dad about that. He doesn't know.”

“Pretty sure he does, sweetheart, and at any rate, you'd be better off admitting it to him than trying to hide it,” her gran said. “Let's get you up and then you can talk to your father. He still has a lot to tell you.”

Daisy nodded, letting her gran take her hand and pushing herself out of the bed. She liked this room. She had one like it back home, but everything here was just a bit better, and she'd never slept so good in her life. She slept better when her father was nearby, but after Sandbrook when he left, she'd gotten such bad insomnia she thought it would never stop.

“This place,” Daisy said. “The TARDIS. It feels like... like I know it even though I've never been here before.”

Her gran smiled at her. “There's a part of you that knows it very well, I think, and she knows you back. She likes you. Gave you your own room right away. She didn't do that for Harry, trust me on that.”

“Who was Harry?”

“Harry Sullivan,” her gran answered. “He traveled with us for a time. Bit of a prat, but in the end, I considered him a friend.”

“Oh.”

“Darling, I'm sorry. There is so much I could tell you, so many things I've seen and done, and I wish I could have shared them with you all along, but I couldn't—”

“Dad didn't want you to.”

“It's more than that,” her gran said as they went along the hall. “Your father wasn't supposed to know what he was, and if I told you or him too much, I was afraid I'd put you both at risk.”

“What?” Daisy asked. “Wait, that man who looks like Dad, he's an alien, and he's—Dad's an alien? My dad is an alien?”

“Half-alien,” her gran corrected, stopping at the door. “Perhaps the rest you'd better ask him yourself.”

Daisy looked over at where her father stood by the console. He gave her a smile, and she bit her lip, torn between running to his side and staying where she was. “You're half-alien.”

“She told you.”

“You can't go lying to me all the time. That's not right.”

“I was going to tell you,” her father said. “There just hasn't been a lot of time with all that's going on. And honestly. You couldn't figure that out yourself?”

“Hardy, don't be an arse to your own daughter.”

“He's got a point, Miller,” Daisy said. “I've only grown up with stories about him having a robot dog and I've seen this place now, and the guy who looks like him is an alien, so... Yeah, I really should have known. I guess I did, but... do I have to be part-alien?”

“Yes.”

She grimaced. “Am I going to get weird tentacles or something?”

She heard everyone laughing, and her father took hold of her hand, pulling her close to him. She wanted to say something about soppy, tease him and make things right again, but she was part-alien, and nothing was going to be right again. Ever.

“You're not going to change. You're exactly the same as you were, and that is perfect,” her father said, leaning his head against hers. “Though you may be more aware of the telepathic connection now. I know I am.”

“The what?”

He pulled back, looking into her eyes. “Daisy, you trust me, don't you? And you know that there's not a thing I wouldn't do for you?”

“Dad, what are you—”

“There is a chance it won't work, and if it doesn't, then I suppose it doesn't matter because we won't know.” He touched her cheek. “I have to do this. For you.”

“You sound like you did when you got sick. When you were telling me your heart got broke,” she said, feeling tears in her eyes. “Dad—”

“My hearts are fine. Fixed. Better than new, even,” he said, brushing away a tear. “I just... I have to do something, and this time I'm making sure I say what needs said even if it is soppy. I love you, darling. You have been my world since you were born, even if I didn't always show it.”

“Don't,” she started to say, but he turned and flipped a switch on the console, which made the whole ship move. She frowned, not understanding because that was definitely her father who'd done it, not the alien, and since when did her father know how to drive the alien's ship?

The TARDIS stopped, and she started to pick herself up again. He knelt next to her, kissing her head before he cupped her cheek.

“Cannot believe I'm doing this,” he muttered. “Still, for you, anything.”

And she could only stare at him as he rushed off out the doors.


	19. Time for Doomsday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hardy faces the Cybermen. Sort of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I'm going to admit it, writing Hardy as a Time demi-Lord is pretty much guaranteed to make him out of character. I tried. I rewrote it, and it's better, but it's still off, much as I did try.
> 
> And yes, recognizable dialogue belongs to the show's writers and I used a transcript for that part.

* * *

_“Absolutely ridiculous. One person changing the entire universe.”_

_“Isn't that what you did?”_

_He tensed. Speaking of his mistake was hardly the best way to way to encourage him, and it would not induce him to make another. Never again. No more. He would not do it. “No.”_

_“It is what you would give anything to change, though.”_

* * *

“Dad,” Daisy said, forcing herself to her feet. She ran to the doors, leaning out. Sarah Jane walked up behind her, putting a hand on her shoulder. Ellie swallowed. She didn't know where Hardy thought he was going or how he'd managed to get the alien ship to listen to him—or where they were because she doubted they were anywhere she knew—but she hadn't expected him to go swanning off, either.

And not like that, not giving his daughter some bloody speech that sounded like he was never coming back.

“Let me by,” Ellie said, walking over to the doors. “I'll drag him back in here myself.”

“I don't think that will be possible,” Sarah Jane said, her voice quiet and troubled. She put her arms around her granddaughter, and Daisy buried her face in the older woman's shirt.

The Doctor came running into the control room, stumbling in the doorway. He picked himself up and looked around the room, going to the central console. “What happened? Why are we out of the vortex? Rose, what did you do?”

“What?” Rose frowned, looking hurt. It was the fear in his voice that unsettled Ellie. “Why are you asking me?”

“Because no one else on board the TARDIS knows how to drive it,” the Doctor said. “What did you do? You can't. If you take us out of the vortex—”

“I didn't,” she insisted. “Your son did.”

The Doctor stared at her. “What? He knows better. He knows he can't do that. He can't—Sarah Jane, he knows space time theory. Oh, not the way an academy grad would, but he knows enough, doesn't he? He knew he couldn't leave. He wouldn't. Not now. Not with... No.”

“He's not going to disappear into thin air. Poof,” Ellie said. “If you'd get out of the doorway, we could go after him.”

“Actually, poofing is almost an accurate description,” Jack said, and she frowned. He turned to the Doctor. “I'm sorry. He took my vortex manipulator.”

“What?”

“It wasn't working, and I didn't really think he could fix it,” Jack answered, sounding guilty. “It didn't look like he had, screen was still dark, and he wasn't using a sonic screwdriver. He couldn't have undid what you did to it without one.”

The Doctor looked at Sarah Jane. She grimaced. “I think he could have. He started tinkering with machinery when he was five. It didn't help that he had K-9 to assist him in his projects.”

“You never thought to program the robot dog not to help him?” Jack asked, and she glared at him.

“He overrode that programming when he was six,” she said. “I keep telling you and you don't listen—he's brilliant. And if you don't believe me, then ask his ex-wife how long he kept that car of his running.”

“It's true,” Daisy said. “Mum hated it. 'Cause they had this deal that when it died, she got a new one, but Dad could always fix it somehow, and he'd had it since before I was even born. Should have known something was wrong when he left it behind.”

“Shh,” Sarah Jane told her. “It's not your fault. None of this is.”

“Isn't it?” Daisy asked. “Wherever he went, whatever he's doing, he's doing it because of me.”

The Doctor put a hand to his head. “Where did he go, Jack?”

“Even if I told you, we can't go there. We'd fracture another timeline or worse,” Jack said. “Doc, look, I'm sorry.”

“Sorry?” the Doctor demanded. “Sorry, that's what you're going to say? He's gone. That impossible thing, this miracle and conundrum, it's gone. No. This can't happen. It's not—why did I ever find him if this was going to happen?”

Rose took a step toward him. “It hasn't been five and a half hours yet.”

Ellie frowned. “What the hell does that mean?”

Rose ignored her, focused on the Doctor. “Always wait five and a half hours, right?”

He looked at her, pained. “Rose—”

“She's still here,” the girl said, turning to look at Daisy. “Right now, she's still here. Normal space. Normal time. But she's here.”

He pulled Rose into a tight, desperate hug, his eyes on Daisy, and Ellie didn't understand why he didn't go to the girl, take comfort in still having his granddaughter even if maybe he really had lost his wanker of a son.

She might kill Hardy herself for putting them all through this.

* * *

_“Bloody morons. The whole lot of them.”_

_Sarah Jane sighed. She couldn't entirely disagree. These “ghosts” were not natural creatures, and everything she knew from being with the Doctor said they were wrong. She couldn't say what they were, but they were not benevolent manifestations of loved ones. They were something far worse._

_“Interrupting a damned funeral for a ghost shift,” Alec went on. “Why even bother having a funeral in the first place?”_

_“Please,” she said, reaching over to touch her son's arm. “Your uncle was a very dear man, and I miss him. Plus, you know your distress agitates your daughter.”_

_He turned away, glaring out at the glen. She rubbed her hand along his back, wishing she could do more to comfort him. He so rarely let her do anything at all for him these days, grown as he was. He'd stopped needing her long before then, of course. That night when he was seventeen changed him forever._

_She missed his innocence. She didn't like how hardened he had become. “Alec, we both know these ghosts aren't what the others think they are.”_

_“I told you—I'm not getting involved with that. Especially not now. I've got Daisy to think about.”_

_“I_ am _thinking about Daisy,” Sarah Jane insisted. “If those ghosts are dangerous, who else is going to stop them? No one here knows how to deal with something like this. You and I are the only ones.”_

_“They're some kind of transdimensional creatures, and you think we can stop them... how? With what? Do you see anything here that can in any way slow them down?” Alec asked, and Sarah Jane knew he was actually talking about killing them, whatever the ghosts were._

_“Are you telling me you can't build something?” Sarah Jane asked, unable to help the teasing tone in her voice. Her son gave her a look, again with that nonsense about not being a part of this sort of thing. He was this sort of thing, and there was no good way of avoiding it even if he wasn't. Aliens were out there, and they caused plenty of trouble on this planet._

_“If I had time, resources, and the proper tools,” Alec said. “As it is...”_

_“There's more of them now,” Sarah Jane said, tugging on her son's arm. “A lot more.”_

_“I can see that,” Alec said. “We have to get Tess and Daisy out of here. Now.”_

_Sarah Jane nodded, though she wasn't sure where they would go. They were here for a funeral, after all, and there wasn't much of anywhere to run, no shelter besides the old church they were already in._

_The ghost solidified in front of them, and Sarah Jane gasped. “Cybermen.”_

_Her son had her hand in an instant. “Run.”_

* * *

“Time Lord science,” the Doctor whispered in horror, looking out at the Daleks as they spread across the sky. That army should be dead. He killed his own planet, his people, two point four seven billion children on Gallifrey to stop that army, and yet it was here. Again. Just like before, on the gamestation. The Daleks always came back. “It's bigger on the inside.”

“Did the Time Lords put those Daleks in there?” Mickey asked, and the Doctor wanted to deny it, didn't want his people giving their old enemies the means to survive when they did not. “What for?”

The Doctor knew. It was brilliant and horrible all at once, like so much with his people was. “It's a prison ship.”

Rose winced. “How many Daleks?”

The number could be infinite, or at least as infinite as the Dalek armies had been before, and his people were very, very good at making things bigger on the inside. And there were so many Daleks to stop in the war. Too many. “Millions.”

The Daleks opened fire, killing anything that moved, human and Cybermen alike. Nothing would survive. He'd lost the Earth. Every last person here was going to die.

“I'm sorry, but you've had it,” Pete Tyler said, and the Doctor frowned, wondering when he'd found such a doom and gloom type to be around. That was the man whose belief was supposed to make the impossible possible so that the Doctor could save the world, end the threat of the Cybermen and the Daleks. “This world's going to crash and burn. There's nothing we can do. We're going home.”

The Doctor frowned. Home? That wasn't home. That Earth would survive, more or less, but this one, the one that Rose and Jackie belonged to, it would die. Everyone here would die. This could not happen. He had to stop it.

Pete put a medallion around Jackie's neck. “Jacks, take this. You're coming with us.”

“But they're destroying the city,” Jackie protested, very human and noble of her, wanting to find a way to stop the carnage here.

“I'd forgotten you could argue,” Pete said with fondness. “It's not just London, it's the whole world. But there's another world just waiting for you, Jacks. And it's safe as long as the Doctor closes the breach. Doctor?”

The Doctor put on his 3D glasses. Time to convince the humans that he had a perfect way of saving everyone. He smiled. “Oh, I'm ready. I've got the equipment right here. Thank you, Torchwood. Slam it down and close off both universes.”

He started to work on the computer terminal, adjusting it to do what it must do. He stepped back, pressing a button in triumph.

“Reboot systems,” the computer reported. That was step one working.

“We can't just leave,” Rose said. Beautiful Rose, also human, so full of compassion, so unwilling to give up or in. “What about the Daleks? And the Cybermen?”

“They're part of the problem, and that makes them part of the solution. Oh, yes,” the Doctor said. That part of the plan was impressive, even if he was only saying so himself. Not that he was, they'd all say it in a minute. “Well? Isn't anyone going to ask what is it with the glasses?”

Rose, ever faithful companion, almost too excited for the end of the world they were facing. “What is it with the glasses?”

Not that he wanted a panic. If he kept everyone calm, they'd believe he could do this, and they'd all be safe. That was worth a bit of theatrics. “I can see, that's what. because we've got two separate worlds, but in between the two separate worlds, we've got the void. That's where the Daleks were hiding. And the Cybermen traveled through the void to get here. And you lot, one world to another, via the void. Oh, I like that. Via the void.”

He might have been a little distracted. Then again, he always was. Just a little. 

“Look,” he said, giving the glasses to Rose. “I've been through it. Do you see?”

She nodded, and the computer announced five minutes as she reached out to try and touch the stuff floating in the air around him. Void stuff. She could see it now, but she was drenched in it, and that was a problem.

“What is it?”

“Void stuff.”

“Like er, background radiation,” Rose said, and he beamed at her, pleased by her understanding.

“That's it,” he told her. “Look at the others. And the only one who hasn't been through the void, your mother. First time she's looked normal all in her life.”

“Oi!” Jackie said.

“But the Daleks lived inside the void,” the Doctor said, bouncing around as he spoke, going all the way to the wall. “They're bristling with it. Cybermen, all of them. I just open the void and reverse. The void stuff gets sucked back inside.”

“Pulling them all in,” Rose finished, gleeful.

“Pulling them all in,” the Doctor agreed. This would work, and it would save multiple worlds. He was proud of his plan, very proud. He just had to show that and that alone, because it wouldn't be that simple. He knew it would have a cost.

“Sorry,” Mickey said. “What's the void?”

The Doctor almost frowned. Hadn't he explained that to Mickey the idiot before? No matter. He could answer again. “The dead space. Some people call it hell.”

“So you're sending the Daleks and Cybermen to hell.” Mickey smiled, looking over at his friend. “Man, I told you he was good.”

“But it's like you said,” Rose said, frowning, catching on almost too quickly for the Doctor's liking. “We've all got void stuff. Me too, because we went to that parallel world. We're all contaminated. We'll get pulled in.”

He nodded. “That's why you've got to go.”

“Reboot in four minutes,” the computer reported. The Doctor wanted to frown again. That was going to take too long. Too many would die. He'd have to speed up the process somehow.

“Back to Pete's world,” the Doctor finished. “Hey, we should call it that. Pete's World. I'm opening the void, but only on this side. You'll be safe on that side.”

“And then you close it for good?” Pete asked. Excellent question that, good. Magnificent. Brilliant. The exact right and wrong question to ask.

“The breach itself is soaked in void stuff. In the end, it'll close itself. And that's it. Kaput.”

Rose stared at him. “But you stay on this side?”

Mickey shook his head. “But you'll get pulled in.”

“That's why I got these,” the Doctor said, showing off his magnaclamps from downstairs. “I'll just have to hold on tight. I've been doing it all my life.”

“I'm supposed to go.”

“Yeah.” It was a simple word, couldn't convey half his pain at what was about to happen, but he knew it had to be done. This was the only way. Rose, Jackie, Mickey, Pete, all of them would be safe in the other world. None of them would survive if they stayed here.

“To another world, and then it gets sealed off.”

“Yeah.” The Doctor went over to the computer, determined to speed up the reboot.

“Forever,” Rose said. Then she shook her head. “That's not going to happen.”

The building shook. The Daleks were firing on them, and Torchwood would not hold. As long as the Cybermen were there to distract them, there'd be fewer human casualties, but it wasn't enough. 

“We haven't got time to argue,” Pete said. “The plan works. We're going. You, too. All of us.”

“No, I'm not leaving here.”

Stubborn Rose. Beautiful Rose, the one who wanted to stay forever with him. She couldn't, and he knew that.

“I'm not going without her,” Jackie insisted.

“Oh, my God.” Pete was frustrated now. “We're going.”

“I've had twenty years without you, so button it,” Jackie told him. “I'm not leaving her.”

“You've got to,” Pete said, desperate to hold onto the woman he loved even if she was a stranger to him at the same time. The Doctor did think that they were a good match, but this might not work all the same. Different priorities.

“Well, that's tough.”

“Mum,” Rose said, ignoring the message from the computer. “I've had a life with you for nineteen years, but then I met the Doctor, and all the things I've seen him do for me, for you, for all of us. For the whole stupid planet and every planet out there. He does it alone, Mum, but not anymore, because now he's got me.”

The Doctor approached behind her, knowing she wasn't paying attention to him. Pete was, but she wasn't, and that was what he needed. He put the medallion around her neck. Pete pushed the button, and she was gone. They were all gone.

The Doctor took a breath and let it out, preparing himself. He knew what he had to do, and he didn't have much time, but he still needed time to accept never seeing Rose again. She'd healed him after the Time War, and he needed her. He didn't know what he'd do with her gone.

“Your plan is utter shite, you know that, don't you?”

The Doctor stopped, turning back and staring in confusion and disbelief. “What?”

* * *

Hardy gave the vortex manipulator a disgusted look, not sure the damned thing would survive the return trip. It was primitive, and he would have rather done this another way, but he knew that there wasn't another option. He was doing this for Daisy. He wouldn't care about the damned timelines if not for her. He had lived a decent enough life, but she'd only started.

He was far from perfect, and even he knew he was a lousy father, but he couldn't stand by and let her be taken by time of all bloody things. If the timeline did correct itself to whatever was in the fixed point's memory, then he knew he would be gone and he wouldn't remember, but he hadn't survived a failing heart and a complicated surgery on another planet to give in to time. That was the human part of him, he supposed.

Unwilling to let go, consequences be damned.

Which led him back to here and now.

He forced himself away from the wall. He didn't remember leaning against it, but he had been almost done in by traveling by the vortex manipulator. That was not the way he wanted to go through time ever again, though he knew he'd have to attempt the trip back to his own time.

Assuming he survived and managed to alter the timeline to keep himself and Daisy in existence.

He shook that off as he heard the clanking of metal boots. Cybermen. They were on the march. Damn it. He looked around. Oh. Canary Wharf. He'd made it to the right place, much to his surprise. He hadn't had much time to do his alterations, and he hadn't been sure they'd work.

He'd also been in a bit of a hurry, since he knew as soon as they worked out what he was doing, someone would try and stop him. Probably the fixed point. Or his father. They actually cared about the rules. Hardy didn't. Space and time could go to hell. He only gave a damn about his daughter.

Right, then. He could do this. He'd built a supercomputer when he was twelve, so he could do this.

Hardy snorted. He didn't have that high of an opinion of himself. He wasn't that good. He didn't know that he was going to be able to do anything, and he could use some kind of help. He could have grabbed the fixed point, since he wouldn't die—oh, right. 

He hadn't been completely irresponsible. He didn't know where Jack had been during this, and he was trying to minimize the damage by only crossing his timeline. And not in the same place as he'd been at the time. He could have brought his mother, but he couldn't risk her. If he altered the timeline and didn't get back, then someone needed to care for Daisy, and only his mother knew how special she actually was. He should have grabbed Miller, though he'd never have had time to argue with her about any of this. She'd be angry and impossible to manage with Cybermen marching toward them.

No, better alone, even if he could use her arguing with him to get his brain working.

He went to the door to the building, trying to open it.

It wouldn't budge.

He grimaced. He really should have finished making that lockpicking device. He'd always meant to, but he pushed it off again and again, always trying to find a way to bury this part of him. He shook his head. He found it very irritating that it was the part he needed, over and over again, even when he'd tried to live like a normal human.

Then again, being human was overrated, and that was what he'd said over and over again when he was accused of being heartless and inhuman. The way he worked, the investigations he did, the bitterness that overtook him so long ago, tainting him, it all made them think he was almost as much a monster as the ones he chased.

Monsters were already at work here, he remembered, looking at the rubble around him. And not every door needed a key. The whole damned building had windows. He picked up a chunk of debris, throwing it at the glass and shattering it.

He jumped inside, running through the empty lobby. The Cybermen were still on the march, but he'd mistaken their sound for one approaching him. They were headed out into the city. Collecting survivors to be upgraded.

Hardy grimaced, stopping by the lift controls. He knew it was a risk, and he might end up stuck in this thing, but it was a bloody skyscraper. He didn't have time to climb up, and he didn't think his new hearts could take the strain if he tried to use the stairs.

He stepped inside, grumbling when he realized he had no idea what floor to be on. He didn't know all of what happened here, how to stop it or change it, but no one would have told him. The Doctor and Rose didn't know, this was future for them, from what he could tell, and Jack wasn't saying much, either. Basement or top floor. He wasn't sure which was more likely to be right, and with even odds, he pushed the button for the top.

Old fears still lingered, he thought, leaning back against the wall and closing his eyes.

He knew there was a possibility he'd be able to sense his father, even if he was no good at using the telepathic bond to track anyone. He'd at least know that he was close by how irritating it was to have his father in the back of his mind.

And if he survived this, he'd have to learn how to use it to find someone else, for Daisy's sake if not his own.

The lift stopped. He stepped out of the doors, looking around. Something felt wrong here. Almost like being in the presence of that thing that called itself Jack.

Now was a very bad time for his new circulatory system to decide it was going to fail him, but of course, his chest tightened up as he heard voices. They weren't Cybermen, not upgraded yet, still sounded very human, but that didn't mean they were any good.

_Panic attacks can feel as real as the heart attacks themselves, Alec. You have to avoid stress._

He forced the doctor's words out of his head and moved along the hall, fighting for air. He should be fine, but he felt like he was going to pass out again, and he didn't have any bloody pills on him to stop it. 

He stopped against the wall. Bloody hell. He refused to believe he was being beaten by a damned panic attack. He tried to calm his hearts, using a breathing exercise as he listened. There. That was a familiar voice. The Doctor was prattling on about void stuff—very scientific that one—and how to end this fight.

Hardy pushed away from the wall as his soon as his body would cooperate, turning the corner in time to see everyone but the Doctor vanish. So that was it, then. Rose was gone, and she'd never come back if what his father had said was true.

And this was the timeline Jack wanted to keep?

Bollocks.

“Your plan is utter shite, you know that, don't you?”

The Doctor turned around, staring at him. “What?”

Hardy knew he didn't have time to explain everything, so he tried to stop the Doctor before he started. “No, I'm not you. No, I didn't cross your personal timeline. That's intact, I think. We don't have time for your questions. We have to fix that plan, because it's bloody terrible.”

The Doctor gaped at him. “No. If you're—I can sense you in my mind. I can feel you. It's the presence of another Time Lord, which is impossible. It's also not the same as being with myself. Oh, that sounds wrong. That sounds so wrong. I know you can't be here. All the Time Lords are dead. I killed them. And the war is Time Locked. Can't be undone. Can't be crossed.”

“I was born sometime after the War ended,” Hardy said. He still didn't know when or how or why, but he was almost sure of that first part. “Now can we focus on that plan of yours because it's going to get you killed and you don't have much time to do it because those things almost wiped out Scotland when I was there.”

“Right. Accent,” the Doctor said almost like he'd just noticed that Hardy spoke with one. “That's so natural... Not mine, though I can master just about—sorry, can I just—”

Hardy took a step back. “You're not going in my head.”

“You _are_ me.”

“No, I just hate bloody telepaths,” Hardy corrected, getting another frown from the Doctor. “We have met before. You've forgotten. You had to. You're not supposed to know I exist.”

The Doctor reached into his pocket, taking out the sonic screwdriver and pointing it at Hardy. “You're half-human.”

“Yes.”

“Impossible.”

“And yet here I am, so can we please fix this nonsense before—”

“Oh, my god, there's two of you.”

* * *

“Oh, no, you don't,” Rose muttered as soon as she saw she was in a darkened version of Torchwood. Pete's world's Torchwood. It didn't matter. She wasn't staying here. She couldn't. She loved her mum, and she missed her dad, but she wasn't leaving the Doctor. “He's not doing that to me again.”

She pushed the button and jumped back into her own world. She was about to give the Doctor a piece of her mind when she saw the other him standing there. He had a suit that wasn't pinstriped, and he was—he seemed older, though that was part the scruff, wasn't it? And the fatigue. He looked tired, so tired.

“Oh, my god, there's two of you,” she said, and they both looked at her.

“Rose,” the Doctor said. “You can't be here. You'll be pulled into the void.”

“It's the same risk you're taking,” she said. “I made my choice a long time ago, and I'm never gonna leave you.”

“Bloody hell,” the other version of him said, sounding like he did when he'd first met Queen Victoria. “You don't have time to argue about this.”

“I can do it. I can help,” she said. “And I don't care if you came from the future to stop us—this has to be done. We have to stop the Daleks. And the Cybermen.”

“Daleks?” the other Doctor turned to the window. “She had nightmares about the Daleks...”

“She?”

He shook it off, turning back to them. “You're going to get sucked into the void if you stay.”

“I'm not going back to the other universe. That's Pete's world, not mine. Not my mum's or Mickey's, even they're stuck there now. That's not me. Not what I want. I promised the Doctor forever. I won't leave him—you—alone.”

“Oh, for Christ's sake,” the older one muttered. “I'm not him. Don't believe me, check me for the void stuff. I don't have it. Never been to a parallel world.”

The Doctor and Rose both frowned at him. “What?”

“Not important,” the other one said, dismissive. “What is important is that I can help close the breach, and I won't be pulled in.”

“We only have the two clamps. I didn't grab all of them,” the Doctor said. “Rose, you have to—”

“Go to the TARDIS,” the other one interrupted. They both looked at him again. “Oh, please. If your ship was going to be pulled into the void, you would never have started this little exercise in futility. Or did you really expect both of you to be pulled in and the clamps were just a way to appease the humans? False hope is a damned nuisance, you know.”

“You weren't really going to kill yourself closing the breach, were you?” Rose asked, choking on her own words. “Doctor?”

He shook his head. “No. The clamps should hold, but without more of them... You do need to go to the TARDIS. He's right. Without void stuff on him, he won't go into the breach. It's safer for him to do it. We can do this together.”

Rose frowned. “If you're trying to send me off again—”

“I am his son,” the other one said, and the Doctor gaped at him. “Don't ask. Don't know. Don't want to. Just know that he lives because I couldn't be here if he didn't. So go get in the bloody TARDIS already. People are dying while you prattle on in a stupid, selfish argument.”

Rose swallowed, feeling sick for more than one reason. The Doctor had a son? What if he had succeeded in trapping her in the other world? And... oh, god, she was killing people while she stood here doing nothing and keeping the Doctor from closing the breach.

“Um... yeah. I'll just...” She started to turn, but then four more people blinked into the room.

“You're all bloody morons,” the Doctor's son said.

Her mum ran toward her. “Rose. I couldn't go without you.”

“Neither could I,” Mickey said. “Come on, babe. We'll all be safe on the other side.”

Rose shook her head. “No. None of us belongs there except Pete, and I won't go. I know it's selfish and stupid, but I made a choice. I'm... I'm going to the TARDIS. I'll be safe there. We all will. You come with me or you go back, but you do it right now, understand? Right now. We're wasting time while people die.”

Mickey nodded, coming toward her, and her mum did, too. Pete and Jake hesitated, and Rose shook her head. She knew she couldn't wait.

“Doctor,” she said, wanting to tell him so many things that she didn't have time for now, “be careful. That goes for you, too.”

The other man snorted, going to the computer as it beeped.

“Rose, who was that?” her mum asked at the same time as Mickey said, “Why are there two Doctors?”

“No time,” she said, taking hold of their hands. “Run.”


	20. Time for Feelings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle of Canary Wharf ends, but the outcome is uncertain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had some trouble getting this part to come together. It was hard to find how and where people were after what happened, and the conversation between the Doctor and Hardy was especially problematic. Nothing sounded right there.

* * *

_“One person changed the universe.”_

_“You say that like you're disappointed.”_

_“One solitary, ordinary person. And they changed the universe.”_

_“And your point?”_

_“That one person's timeline is worth changing.”_

* * *

“When it starts, just hold on tight,” the Doctor said, prepping his lever. The program was about to start. He looked over, checking the position of the other man. Exactly where he should be. The Doctor hesitated, wanting to ask so many things, but they didn't have time for that. “Shouldn't be too bad for us but the Daleks and the Cybermen are steeped in void stuff. Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

“Problem?”

“I assume that's a Dalek?”

The Doctor dodged as they started firing. “Start the program. Now. Levers up.”

“No _allons-y?”_ the other man asked, and the Doctor smiled as he pushed his lever into place. He heard the computer report it was online as he ran to the clamp. He grabbed hold as the winds picked up, trying to pull him into the void. The Daleks rushed past him, tumbling into the void.

It was working. He couldn't help feeling a sense of pride. And relief. Much, much relief.

He looked over at the man on the other side of the room. His son. Impossible. He couldn't have a child. All of the Time Lords were gone—and yes, he knew that his supposed son was half-human, but that was an impossibility as well. Hybrids couldn't exist. The two species weren't compatible in that sense. Sure, they shared a few similarities in the most basic of genetic structures, but that was it.

“How can you be my son?”

The other man glared at him from across the room, but before he answered, the computer interrupted them. “Offline.”

He looked over at the lever. Somehow the one across the room had come undone. Debris? He'd been so caught up in the calculations that could make his son possible that he hadn't been paying much attention to anything else. Just hold on and of course his Time Lord brain had to wander at the worst of times.

He could only watch as his son let go of the clamp, going for his lever. He rounded the desk, grabbing hold of it. The wind from the breach fought him, but he grunted, pushing it back in place.

“Online and locked.”

The other man slumped against the lever, breathing hard, and the Doctor frowned, afraid the void would take him with all the Daleks and the Cybermen. No. Not his son. He shouldn't have one, but he wasn't letting him get sucked into the void.

The pull of the void tried to yank him off the clamp, and he had to reaffirm his hold. That was it. The last bit, the death throe, and the wind died as the hole crumpled in on itself like a piece of paper might, disappearing from sight.

It was done. The Doctor let go of the clamp and took an unsteady step forward. He gave the breach another glance, torn between checking its seal and the knowledge currently causing his hearts pain.

“That's the lever I would have given Rose,” the Doctor said, crossing over to where the other man was still sitting. “It would have fallen on her, and she would have moved to put it back. She would have been pulled in.”

His son grunted, and the Doctor reached out to offer him a hand. He took it, and the Doctor helped him up to his feet, not wanting to let go of this hand. He could feel it in the pulse—two hearts. That empty place in his mind was full again—no, not full, but occupied some—and it felt too good.

He dragged the other man into his arms. “I would have lost her. Even if somehow someone had come from the other side, she'd be gone.”

“I was aware of that, yes.”

“Instead, I almost lost you,” the Doctor said, and the other man pushed out of his hold. “You were still at risk, void stuff or no void stuff.”

His son walked away from him, going toward the broken window. “How many dead?”

“Too many,” the Doctor answered, pained. He'd been focused on his own loss—near loss—and not the kind of losses this planet had taken. Again. He should have been able to stop it, but he wasn't here. Not until it was two months too late. If he'd seen the ghosts when they first came through, he could have kept the Cybermen from attacking.

Then again, he didn't know that the world would have survived the Daleks without the Cybermen running interference. He sighed, looking out at the devastation below them. “Always too many.”

His son nodded. He kept his eyes on the street. “You should go to the TARDIS. Unless—no, you don't stick around for the clean up, do you?”

The Doctor shook his head. “Better for them to rebuild without me.”

“You bloody liar.”

The Doctor almost smiled. He would much rather be gone for this part. He didn't know how to pick up the pieces. He never had. That was why he needed Rose so much. She'd been good at that, picking up his pieces. And he'd picked up hers. He could do that sometimes with his companions.

Not with the world. Never with the world.

“They'll be fine.”

His son snorted. “No. Something like this, when it happens, it changes people forever. Even when they live.”

* * *

“And you?” The Doctor asked. “Why are you still here?”

Hardy considered the sarcastic answers he could have given, the truth, and saying nothing. He let out a breath, still looking down at the city below them. This was worse than what he'd lived through in Scotland, probably because they'd been at a rural church instead of in the heart of the city.

“Not because I plan on cleaning up,” Hardy answered. “I did that once already.”

The Doctor frowned, but Hardy wasn't about to explain that. He couldn't tell him he'd lived through this once, since he was probably twisting time into a pretzel right now. Daisy would like that. She liked pretzels.

“Was it true?” the Doctor asked, his voice a bit choked. “What you said about being my son?”

“Thought you were supposed to be a genius.”

“I am, and the fact that you look like me isn't any kind of proof. I could list off hundreds—thousands—of reasons why we would look alike that have nothing to do with genetics. Did you know there's a theory that—”

“No. And I don't care.”

The Doctor frowned. “You can't be my son.”

That made Hardy want to laugh. “That's your evidence? Talk about a flawed argument.”

The Doctor did laugh. “Yes, it is, I suppose. Still, I have other things that I could add in—reasons I very much expect you've already heard—you're not surprised; you know me, whereas to me you're a stranger—love the accent, don't recognize it—and the mental bond doesn't bother you—”

“No, it does,” Hardy said. He still found that unnatural. His father's presence wasn't like Daisy's. He found his bond with his daughter reassuring. He didn't know what she thought about it. “You have hundreds of questions. I couldn't answer half of them if I did have time.”

“And you don't,” the Doctor said. He looked back at him. “It wasn't supposed to end like this. The Beast said Rose would die in battle.”

“You don't know that it was here, and you don't strike me as the type that believes in that sort of thing. I bloody well don't.”

“Yes, you would seem to be more of a cynic.”

“Go to the TARDIS. They're waiting for you.”

“And who waits for you?” The Doctor asked. “Are you... alone?”

Hardy shook his head. He couldn't say more, but he wasn't alone. He had Daisy, and he doubted he'd get his mother to leave him alone. Plus, Miller. Unless they did make her forget, he didn't doubt he'd have her constantly bothering him about aliens.

“Good. None of us... we shouldn't be alone. I say I'm fine when I'm alone, I'm always fine, but... it's better with two. You need... a hand to hold.” The Doctor took a breath, letting it out. “You... I don't know how to say goodbye.”

Hardy shrugged. “You want me to make you angry? Wouldn't take much.”

The Doctor frowned. “You said you didn't cross _my_ timeline. You did cross yours. You were speaking from experience about this changing people. You lived it. You were here before.”

“No,” Hardy said, and the Doctor started to launch into an argument. He held up a hand. “I was in Scotland.”

“Right. The accent.” The Doctor said. He shook his head. “You know better than that, though. You know the risks. Paradoxes. Reapers. Altering the course of history. The repercussions of a single act like this are impossible to know. You—even if you're half-human, you knew.”

“I did,” Hardy agreed. “And I knew if I did nothing, I'd lose my daughter.”

“Daughter?” the Doctor repeated, leaning against the wall. “You have a daughter. I have... a granddaughter. Again. There was Susan. I loved her, but she's gone. She... You have a daughter.”

“I do.”

The Doctor looked at him. “She's why you came. Something here... it connected to her? How? If you were in Scotland, wasn't she with you? You saved her, didn't you? You must have. She wasn't... taken by the Cybermen?”

“No. Daisy's alive. I'm going to keep her that way.”

“At what cost?”

Hardy looked away. “I have to go.”

“And I have to forget, but don't think this is over,” the Doctor warned him. “You can't alter timelines at will. There are things that can't be changed. I won't let you alter them all. Not even for my granddaughter.”

“Even if she's ginger?”

The Doctor stared at him. “You're joking.”

“You seemed to think it made some kind of difference,” Hardy said, shrugging. “All I know is that she's mine and I'd do whatever I had to keep her safe. So you can stop me, I suppose, but at this point, you're creating a paradox on top of a paradox. Not the greatest idea.”

“No. No. I have to forget,” the Doctor said. “And Rose, too. The others, even, because if they mentioned seeing another me... Oh. Blimey. Going into Jackie Tyler's mind. I think I'd rather regenerate.”

Hardy considered telling him he'd ruin the timeline that way, but he didn't. “You said there were thousands of other reasons I could look like you. Use one. Say I was... a Time Agent with some sort of... shape-shifting or perception altering technology. That I lied about being your son.”

“Could work,” the Doctor agreed. He put his hands in his pockets. “That doesn't mean you're forgiven for messing with the timelines.”

Hardy shook his head. “Well, if we ever manage to meet in the right one, you can lecture me then.”

“Don't think I won't,” the Doctor said. Then he frowned. “It... You met me before now. So... you and I... We haven't actually met in a timeline where I get to remember you. Or Daisy. We haven't, have we? You, this... great, impossible thing, the one that either saved my life or Rose's—I don't get to know you exist.”

“No.”

The Doctor winced, pained. “I won't see you again, will I?”

“I don't know,” Hardy told him honestly. He didn't know how he came into being, just that this regeneration had given him to his mother, and that he was not telling the Doctor. “The timelines have shifted. It's all in flux.”

“That sounds like something I'd say,” the Doctor said. He shook his head, and Hardy could see he was getting soppy again.

“Don't,” he said, but by then it was too late and the Doctor had hugged him again. He sighed. “And Miller says I don't hug.”

“Miller?”

“Pain in the arse. Smart, though. Needed her for Sandbrook,” Hardy answered. “Shouldn't tell you about that, either.”

“I'm going to forget,” the Doctor reminded him, stepping back from him. “She your companion, then?”

“She'd hate that,” Hardy said, smiling. “Think I will call her that from now on.”

“Quite right,” the Doctor said, smiling back at him. “And... in case I never get a chance to say it—and even though I am not happy about this messing with timelines business—I'm glad you're here. I... You are... I didn't think I'd ever have a family again, and I know we're not close, not even close to close which is not—the point is, I am glad this moment exists. Even if it's a paradox that will undo itself—I was glad to have met you. To have this time, this chance.”

“If you get soppy on me again—”

“Oi,” the Doctor said. “I'm a nine hundred year old Time Lord. We don't get soppy.”

“Yes, you do,” Hardy said, having to force another smile. He was in danger of becoming soppy himself. For all that he'd used the words plenty of times before, he'd never quite felt them before, since father was a word and emotions caught up with Stuart Hardy. Those were easy.

What he felt about the Doctor was different. And that was a problem.

* * *

Beth came down into the kitchen, Lizzie in her arms. She knew she'd have to wake Tom and Fred soon, but she wanted to hold off on that for as long as possible. Those boys had a rough night, after all the strange goings on and then that damned box disappearing like it had, taking Ellie with it. They might never see their mum again, and Beth didn't know how to comfort them besides the lie.

She and Mark told him Ellie would be back. Chloe didn't believe them, but she didn't say anything, which was a relief. Beth didn't need that boy worrying more than he already was.

“Morning,” Mark said, holding out a cup for her. She waved him off, not wanting it until she had Lizzie settled. “I was thinking... Maybe I won't go in today. Nige can handle it, and we've got to do something with the boys.”

Beth nodded. Something distracting would be good. They could all use that. “Sounds good. I'm for it. We could take Lizzie out, show her something new, too.”

She didn't want to think about affording it. She wasn't going to worry about money now. That was for later, when she wasn't facing the return of her son's killer and the disappearance of her best friend. And if Tom and Fred no longer had a mother, what then?

Chloe trod her way in to the kitchen, going to the fridge and taking out a Vitex, opening the lid and drinking from it.

“Don't think just because you've got one of those you can skip breakfast,” Beth told her, and Chloe rolled her eyes at her before going to the window. The bottle fell out of her hand, spilling all over the sink. “Chloe, watch what you're doing.”

“Mum, it's back. That police box. It's in our yard again.”

“What?” Beth asked, but she was already on the run. She kept Lizzie close to her as she rushed out the door, stopping when she saw it. Blue box, large as life, taking up her yard and squashing some of her mum's flowers.

“It's back,” Mark said, coming up behind her. He took Lizzie from her, staring. “I don't... How did it disappear last night?”

Beth shook her head. “No idea.”

She started forward. The doors were open, though she wasn't sure she wanted to go in it, not after what had happened to Ellie. Oh. Maybe it wasn't as bad as they'd feared. This didn't feel like that day on the beach, when Beth had known it was Danny.

“Ellie?”

Someone stepped out of the doors, but it wasn't Ellie. Beth frowned at the sight of Hardy's daughter. She was wearing the same clothes as the last time Beth saw her, but it looked like she'd been crying. Another woman followed her out, and Ellie came up behind them.

“You're back. You're alive.” Beth said. “Where did you go?”

Ellie winced. “I'm not entirely sure.”

“It's been hours,” Chloe said. “You disappeared from our yard last night. And it's morning now.”

“All he did was pull one lever,” Ellie muttered, shaking her head. She looked around, still frowning. “You didn't see Hardy, did you?”

“No,” Beth answered and then frowned. “No, but there's him.”

Ellie looked behind her at the man stepping out of the box. Chloe and Mark exchanged looks, and Beth knew they didn't understand how so many people fit inside something that small. It only looked that small, though. Beth had seen inside it.

“That's not Hardy. That's the Doctor.”

“That's the one he told us not to talk to. He's the one that kidnapped you last night?” Mark demanded, and Beth put a hand on his arm to stop him before he did anything stupid.

“Yes. No. It's complicated.”

“Doctor?” the blonde came up to him, taking his hand. “We're back where we were, aren't we? He just brought us back here.”

“Yup,” the man in the suit said, not sounding pleased. “Simple, almost. Like hitting redial on a phone and calling the last person you called.”

“Only it's been hours,” Ellie said. “It was dark when you got it in your head to go. And now that knob brought us back and it's light.”

“She does seem to have a thing about that,” he said, reaching over to pat the box. He stopped. “Oh, company. The natives do not seem particularly happy, Ellie. I don't suppose—wait a minute, where is Jack? Can't leave that man on his own for a minute.”

He disappeared inside the doors again.

Mark shook his head. “What the hell is going on here?”

“It's...” Ellie sighed, shaking her head. She stopped. “Beth, the boys—”

“Inside. They spent the night in Danny's room.”

“Thank you,” Ellie said, giving her a hug and rushing inside. Beth stood still, trying to make sense of this. She could do with an explanation. A dozen of them. And she wasn't the only one.

“I don't think we met properly earlier,” the dark haired woman said. “I'm Sarah Jane Smith. I believe you know my son, Alec.”

“You're Hardy's mother,” Mark said, still frowning.

“And you're very confused. Trust me, I'm familiar with that reaction. I suppose I have the most experience with this. Daisy—”

“I want to wait here. You go ahead, Gran. Show them the TARDIS.”

* * *

“You going to complain about overcrowding again?” Jack asked, watching Sarah Jane lead the others off on an unofficial tour of the TARDIS before nudging the Doctor with his elbow. The Time Lord just looked at him, and Jack winced, not ever wanting to see that kind of pain on the other man again. Loss. It was all over him, just like with the damned Master. “Sorry. I was just... He could still come back, you know.”

“I know,” the Doctor said, running a hand over his face. “This is ridiculous. It's an aberration.”

“Seriously?”

“No.” The Doctor closed his eyes and leaned against the console. “It shouldn't—I should have been stronger about keeping my distance. About... not feeling. Not getting attached. Humans are the ones with the need for such things. Time Lords—we weren't that way. Not most of us. I just had to go and be an exception that, and for what? To lose them all, over and over again?”

Jack nodded. “I know what you mean. I told myself sex was fine. No love. Never love. Not again, not when I don't die, but then someone comes along, and it doesn't matter. I fall for them anyway. Not just hormones or pheromones. The feelings happen. And I leave them behind because they don't understand a man who doesn't die. Or they die.”

“No words about how alike we are?”

Jack grinned. “Well, now that you mention it—”

“Don't.”

“I would think you'd be more grateful,” Jack said. The Doctor looked at him. “It's better not to be completely alone, isn't it? Rose doesn't understand. None of them know what it's like to outlive the person you love over and over again.”

“Sarah Jane lost her husband,” the Doctor said. He grimaced. “She lost me, too. And if she loses her son, well...”

“Maybe what he did worked. We won't know. For us, it won't even seem like anything changed,” Jack reminded him. “It's your future, so you wouldn't know it. The rest of us can't sense the time streams.”

“One person here can.”

Jack looked back at the door. “You know she didn't come back in with the others, right?”

The Doctor frowned, and then a second later, he was off like a light, rushing down the ramp and out the door. Jack followed after him, hoping it wasn't the crisis that he seemed to think it was. As long as the girl was still there, they were fine.

“Daisy?” the Doctor asked, and she looked back at him, her lip twisted up and the wind swirling her hair everywhere. She was cute. In a few years, she'd be dangerously pretty, and the Doctor would kill Jack for that thought, if his son didn't do it first.

“Go away,” she said, turning back from him. “You're not my dad. You look like him, but you're not him. Just... leave me alone.”

The Doctor looked like he'd been kicked. Jack winced.

“I just don't think you should be alone right now, and with your grandmother busy giving a tour—well, that can take hours. Well, I say hours, but I should say days. Well, I say days, but I mean months. Years,” the Doctor corrected himself, and Jack smiled, knowing that was true. The girl didn't seem quite as amused. “Please come back inside. I can tell you're upset.”

She looked back at him with a frown. “You... You're upset, too. I can feel it. Like I can feel Dad. I... You're not him. You look kind of like him, but you don't. It's not just the scruff. It's... You bounce, and Dad... He walks like... like he carries every case he ever investigated on his back.”

“Not with you,” the Doctor told her. “You let him shed that weight.”

“Who are you?” she asked, and Jack started to back away, aware he was intruding on a very private moment between them. “I thought maybe an uncle, but that's not right, is it?”

“Grandfather, actually,” the Doctor told her, and she stared at him. “Bit timey-wimey. Everything's all over the place, since I travel in space and time, but... yeah. I'm your grandfather. Not entirely sure how yet, no one seems to know, as your father is somewhere in my future and—”

“Doc,” Jack said. “That might be—”

“Oof,” the Doctor said as she wrapped her arms around him, and Jack couldn't help the smile. About damned time, really. “Daisy. Did I ever tell you how much I like that name of yours? Rose's is nice, too, but daisies. Have you ever seen them? They're so... happy. They look like happy flowers. Not like the flowers on that moon that will eat you if you turn your back on them. Those are just evil.”

“You talk too much,” Daisy said, and the Doctor laughed, holding on tighter.

Jack knew that was only going to hurt more later. A lot more. 

“Hey, you,” a voice said, sounding very disgruntled and a little out of breath. “That's my daughter. You go get your own.”


	21. Time for Reality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hardy's return means that decisions have to be made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of these days, I will find a better way to get access to Classic Who. There's so much I haven't seen and don't know about, and while I read up on it, I still don't know very much, though I try. I've seen the bits and pieces I can get access to, but when one is a broke American with only the sets she blew a tax return on and a local library, well...
> 
> Anyway, I made up most of the aliens and other planets I mention, since I didn't know of any in the actual show that did what I needed them to do.

* * *

_Not again._

_He shouldn't have to do this again._

_He shouldn't have to lose everything again._

_Yet he did. Over and over again, he paid the cost, and the cost was always high, so much higher than anyone should ever have to pay, but the balance always came due._

_And he paid._

* * *

“Dad!” Daisy cried, letting go of the Doctor and rushing over to embrace her father, holding on with the same—perhaps greater—tenacity than she'd done when she held onto him, and the Doctor could not stop the surge of jealousy that rose within him at the action. He felt bereft without her next to him, and it was foolish and wrong, but he was jealous of his son. Her joy at seeing him again, the love that radiated from her when she saw him, even her relief, all of those wonderful human emotions on display, all given to his son.

And his son didn't feel any of that sort of affection for him.

The Doctor felt a sharp pang of loss again. Susan. He'd been very fond of Susan, closer to her than her parents, going so far as to steal a TARDIS with her, but he felt like it wasn't the same, that he couldn't compare it to the bond between Hardy and Daisy.

“Jealousy is usually kind of sexy,” Jack said, and the Doctor gave him a pointed look. “Not so much this time.”

“It... It hurts,” the Doctor admitted. “I had that. Or I should have done, but it's not there now. All of them are gone. And while he might be my son, it's not like we are like that. Even now that I know about him, we're not close.”

“That could change. Who knows what he's done to the timelines?” Jack said, and the Doctor grimaced. That was true. He had no idea what kind of damage had been done and what havoc was loose upon time itself.

“You didn't tell me he was my grandfather,” Daisy said, looking like she might hit Hardy. “When are you going to stop lying to me?”

Hardy shook his head. “I didn't lie. We still have a lot to talk about, young lady. Don't think I've forgotten about that nonsense about a boyfriend just because I had to go fix time.”

She frowned, and Jack chuckled. “Oh, this is good. You might end up a _great_ -grandfather.”

“Oi,” the Doctor said, shaking his head. “Too soon, much, much too soon.”

Hardy took off the armband and tossed it back to Jack, who caught it with a playful grin. “That thing is rubbish. Wasn't sure the second trip would even work. No, it didn't. Ended up over on the bloody cliff. What is it with this damned town and that cliff?”

The Doctor frowned. “Something about killer alien fossils, perhaps?”

“Oh, please. It was a Dyph.”

“A what?” Jack asked, and Daisy stared at her father, confused.

“A Dyph?” the Doctor asked. “Oh, that's brilliant. Dyph. It's been centuries since I saw one of them. Their planet was almost wiped out by the Great Spaceworm Migration, and they never quite recovered. They tried, mind you, they really did, but the spaceworms—Cuelholh, they were called. I think. It's been a long time, and that was supposedly a myth—not everyone believes in the Great Spaceworm Migration—the Cuelholh left behind a secretion that—”

“Doctor, are you sure you want to go there in front of the children?” Jack asked, and the Doctor sighed, shaking his head.

“It was radioactive and changed the harmless fauna on the planet into something horrible and carnivorous, and the Dyph sacrificed themselves to stop it. Very noble. Very tragic. And very bad if one of those things survived and got loose on Earth. Where did you say you found that fossil?”

Hardy shook his head. “You can't keep making excuses, you know.”

“What?”

“Daisy,” Hardy said. “I need to have a word with your grandfather. Take the fixed—take Jack and—oh. Yes. Go ask Miller or her son where her nephew would be. The reporter. I think he and Jack should meet.”

Daisy frowned. “You're just doing that to annoy both of them, aren't you?”

Hardy shrugged. “He might enjoy it. I don't care if he does or not. I just need to talk to your grandfather. _Alone.”_

“Fine,” she muttered. She gave Jack a look and shook her head. “Not touching you.”

“That's fine. I like 'em feisty.”

“Just because you can't die doesn't mean you can't suffer,” Hardy warned him, and the Doctor nodded, though he shouldn't condone such an action. Still, the idea of Jack and his granddaughter—no. Just _no._ That could not happen.

The Doctor turned to him. “Are you sure that was wise? Sending her with Jack?”

“I'd be more worried about your immortal friend if I were you,” Hardy told him, and the Doctor smiled, aware of how proud his son was of his daughter. “Much as I'd like to keep her innocent forever, she's my daughter. Tess' daughter. No, she'll be fine. He might not be.”

The Doctor nodded. He gestured to the field. “Shall we?”

* * *

“If you're looking for my grandfather, he's in the field with my dad,” Daisy said as Rose approached her. Jack had given her the nudge to go talk the girl, though she couldn't be sure why. She had a hard time seeing this as the Doctor's granddaughter, even if she knew that was exactly who she was. “Never had a grandfather before. Both Dad's dad and Mum's dad were dead before I came along. I don't think he would have wanted me to know his dad. He never liked him.”

“Sarah Jane did, though,” Rose said. “She loved him.”

Daisy shrugged. “My mum loved my dad and she cheated on him. Or maybe she loved that guy what she shagged. I think some people just _think_ they love each other. They don't actually know what it is. My friend, Daniella, she's fallen in love four times since this term started.”

“None of that for you?” Rose asked, deciding to tease her a bit. She tried not to think about the possibilities, about this being the Doctor's granddaughter.

“Not you, too. I don't know why Dad's convinced I have a boyfriend, but I don't. And no, I don't have a girlfriend, either.”

Rose fought a grin. “Let me guess—you have a this friend, who's a boy—but he's just a friend—”

“No.” Daisy blushed, going almost as red as her hair. Rose smiled. Oh, there was _definitely_ a boy. The little Time Lady had a crush. This was great. Adorable.

“Does this friend have a name?” Rose asked, and Daisy glared at her. She laughed, but the moment was interrupted by Ellie coming out of the house. Her son trailed after her, holding onto his brother, but he could barely keep up with his mum's pace, angry as she was.

“I swear, if I get my hands on that knob, I'll kill him. I will bloody kill him. I don't care if he's got a heart condition or is a bloody alien,” Ellie grumbled as she came up to them. She held out a phone, shoving it at Daisy. “Talk to your mother. Now. Don't argue with me. You talk to her, or I swear I will—I don't know what I'll do, but you won't like it.”

Daisy looked at the phone. “I'm not talking to her.”

“No matter what she did, she's still your mum,” Rose said. “My mum and I fight a lot. I still miss her, though, even though I can be anywhere in space and time and she drives me insane when I'm home. And I never really got to know my dad. He died when I was a baby. If I had the chance...”

Daisy shook her head. “She let Dad take the blame for Sandbrook. She would have let the whole world think he was a bad cop and a cheater. And he was dying and she knew it and she didn't tell me. Neither of them did.”

“Sounds like you need to talk,” Rose said, and Daisy grumbled, walking back into the TARDIS with the phone.

“Um,” Rose began, not sure that Ellie's phone was safe inside the ship.

“Fred, you have _got_ to see this,” the older boy said, carrying his brother into the TARDIS. Rose looked over at Ellie.

“Are you sure—”

“I meant it. I'm gonna kill him.”

Rose frowned. “Because he left? He did put us back here before he did. You have your boys back, and they're okay. It was only a few hours. Not so bad. I lost a year once.”

Ellie shook her head. “Not that. No, I'm gonna kill him for that, too, but he didn't bother letting Tess know that Daisy was here and safe even if she wasn't talking to her. Not him, not Daisy, and not his mother. So Tess calls me, and since I tell her that yes, I know where Daisy is and she's safe—well, safe as she can be traveling in a space ship with an insane alien who happens to be her grandfather—Tess decides that Joe's defense was telling the truth. Hardy and I are shagging.”

“Oh.” Rose said. She grimaced. She knew how that was, traveling with the Doctor and being mistaken for something they weren't. “So... telling you he came back is a bad idea, then?”

Ellie stared at her. “He's back? That wanker is back? And he didn't say anything?”

Rose bit her lip. “I think he's saying goodbye to his father.”

“What?”

“The Doctor hasn't done whatever it is that gets him a son yet. I'd know if he had a son, and he doesn't. He did have a family, but he lost them in a war. A terrible war. He lost everything. Hardy isn't his son somehow surviving that. He's something else, something still in the future,” Rose said. “So he and I have to go.”

“Bollocks.”

Rose shrugged. “It's how it is. It's time travel. It's complicated, and it's messy, and it's wonderful. We see incredible things. And horrible things. And we save the world, but we can't save everyone.”

Ellie shook her head. “Hardy said that. When we were working the case. He said it. He kept telling me I couldn't make it better. He didn't even try.”

“I see a lot of the darkness I knew in the Doctor when I first met him in his son,” Rose said, twisting her lip. Jack was almost right about the first Doctor's personality being in the second one's body in Hardy. “He needs someone to help keep him out of that darkness. That's what I do for the Doctor.”

“I'm a mum, not his childminder.”

Rose shook her head. “You don't understand yet, but I think you will—he needs someone like you to push him and make him better. You say he's a wanker and a knob, and he is—he's the Doctor's son—but the thing is, he's more than just some irritating git.”

Ellie sighed. “I owe him for proving it was Joe. I would never have known. And he... He was weird and nice after that. He did right by me and the boys, and then he came in and dragged me into another case just when I needed it, but that doesn't mean we're friends.”

Rose chose not to say anything to that. “I think that the Doctor would be willing—well, more than willing—to take your family and friends anywhere in space you wanted to go. You think you'll want to try it? I should warn you, trouble does find us a lot.”

Ellie snorted. “I'm so not surprised.”

* * *

“You're not going to tell me what you did, are you?”

Hardy keep his eyes on the grass, not looking at his father. The man had an amazing ability to look like a drowned puppy, which shouldn't have any effect on Hardy, seeing as they basically had the same face, but then he had his weaknesses, too, and the whole drowned part of it... That was one of them. Pippa. She came to mind every time he dealt with water.

“You know I'm going to forget all of this. I have to,” the Doctor said. “Lock it away and bury it. I can't know too much about my future, and this... well, we already know it's too much. However it comes about that you exist, that hasn't happened yet. I haven't taken you to Sarah Jane yet.”

“Would you do it?” Hardy asked, this time looking over to see the Time Lord's reaction. “Would you change it so I wasn't born?”

The Doctor shook his head. “No. No, even if there is a part of me, the part of me that did learn Gallifrey's rules and my people's prejudices, no. You... I... You have as much right as anyone else to a life. I couldn't take that from you.”

Hardy frowned. “I don't know if you should say that or if I was just expecting you to be more soppy about the whole thing.”

The Doctor shook his head. “I know what my people would expect. I know what is supposedly best for the universe. That changes little. You are my son. I can feel you—our bond isn't like the one you have with Daisy, but it exists. You're a part of me. Besides, even if I do disagree with what you did—and I suspect I might if I knew exactly what it was—who knows how much damage trying to erase you from existence would have?”

“You still intend to forget, though.”

“I do,” the Doctor said, pained. Hardy turned back, and the Doctor forced a smile. “The danger of knowing the future is what you do thinking you can change it or preserve it. In this case... I could enter into any number of physical relationships believing that one of them will result in you. I could seek out any number of planets with advanced reproductive techniques, ones that would have the means to create you without some other party involved. I could... go back to some point earlier in your life where you don't know what you are and cause untold damage when all I meant to do was get a glimpse of your life.”

“Suppose that makes sense.”

“I take it neither of us is particularly happy about this arrangement,” the Doctor said, shoving his hands in his pockets. “I don't know of any other way. I'm not supposed to know about you. You're not supposed to know about me. This meeting—it had to happen. You wouldn't have lived if it didn't. Then again, you wouldn't have changed time if you'd died, which is quite the conundrum, isn't it?”

“Paradox on top of a paradox.”

“Something like that, yes,” the Doctor said. “This... it isn't easy. I have been alone since the Time War, and that silence is... deafening. It's like being sucked under the water, not being able to breathe. Rose pulled me out, showed me how to live again after what I did, and I don't know what I'd do without her... She is my Daisy, though she is not my daughter and we don't share a mental bond. Still, the analogy almost works—Daisy kept you from being lost after some of your worst cases.”

Hardy swallowed. Daisy hadn't saved him from himself, from what he did after the Sandbrook case caused his health to fail. That was too much to expect of a child, even if a part of him might have been desperate for something like it, same as he was back when he was seventeen and overwhelmed by what he'd seen and done that night.

If that had been Daisy, he'd have gone back in time to change it. Hardy understood why the Doctor would consider what he knew a risk.

“The fossils are an excuse,” Hardy said instead, not wanting to think too much about the past or what could still happen. The timeline was still in flux. He could feel it. It disturbed him. He didn't know if that would ever stop. “Just like the 'distractions' keeping you from dealing with Joe Miller. You letting all those people on the TARDIS. You are buying time.”

The Doctor gave him a small, rueful smile. “I suppose I am at that.”

Hardy's eyes went back to the edge of the field. “I wish you hadn't told her. She... she's going to miss you.”

“And I her, even if I don't know precisely what it is I am missing,” the Doctor told him. He shook his head. “Curse of the Time Lords.”

“Oh, don't say that. Daisy's stubborn. She'll find you eventually.”

“That isn't wise. Who knows where in my timeline I'll be when she does?”

“Exactly where the TARDIS wants you to be,” Hardy said, and the Doctor laughed.

* * *

“'Bout time you got back. Do you have any idea what you did, you wanker?” Ellie demanded, and Hardy gave her a look, saying nothing as he passed by her. His father followed after him, not as animated as usual. Quieter, subdued, and that was all sorts of wrong from what Ellie had seen of him so far. God, it was like someone was dying around here, and she didn't like it. “Seriously? I know you're a knob, but you do know how to say the words 'I'm sorry,' don't you?”

“Oh, shut it. You have your sons, and that's what matters,” Hardy said, and taking a position against the far rail.

“Cut the tour short, did you, Sarah?” the Doctor asked, his eyes on Hardy's mother, like he was preparing to say goodbye to her, too.

“Babies, Doctor. They have schedules all their own,” she reminded him, giving Lizzie a look.

“Do they? I must have missed that part,” the Doctor said, and Ellie wasn't the only one to give him a look. “Looms don't exactly make for the best of parents, I must say. Now, back to the matters at hand. We've got cascading timeline failures, way too many people in the TARDIS, and an alien hitchhiker very attached to a child killer. Right. So... obviously, all the people can easily be removed. They just walk out the door and—”

“If you are dumping my son's killer in a black hole, I am bloody well watching you do it,” Beth said, folding her arms over her chest. “I want to see him pay for what he did.”

“Oh, yes. Well... Might I posit an alternative? You see, there is this planet. Marna IV. They decided to do some... well, they pioneered prison reform in the thirty-first century—”

“You want to take him to Marna IV?” Jack asked. “He killed a kid, and you think that's what you should do with him?”

The Doctor folded his arms over his chest. “Marna is considered cruel and unusual punishment in fifteen galaxies.”

“What?” Sarah Jane asked. “What are you—”

“Marna IV plugs its prisoners into a virtual reality simulation where they relive their crimes. Over and over again. It was supposed to be a rather fitting punishment, and some say it still is. The fact that it drove some prisoners well past sanity led to it being outlawed, as I said,” the Doctor said. “You did mention some reluctance to admit to guilt on his part, didn't you? A few days on Marna, and that would definitely not be the case.”

“Could you bring him back after that?” Miller asked. “Could he choose to confess and take his punishment here?”

“If he had a mind left at that point, sure,” Jack answered. He looked over at Joe, shaking his head. “He won't. Most prisoners were insane after the first day.”

“I suppose we could always ask the man himself what he prefers,” the Doctor said, turning round to face Joe. “Thoughts?”

“He thinks you're bluffing,” Hardy said. “If he thought you meant it, he'd be in a panic. No, he doesn't think you can. Or that you will.”

“Oh,” the Doctor said. “A demonstration is in order. Proof. Lion's head nebula sound good to anyone? All right, then. _Allons-y.”_


	22. Time for Proof

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor shows everyone that they are in space and that the TARDIS can go to other planets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a very long and very horrible day at work, so sick of my job at the moment, and I wasn't sure how to get into writing after it was over. I started a piece that I was going to make a side story, thinking that something short and complete might be a good idea, but instead what I got was a different direction that lead me to where this chapter went.
> 
> And it is a bit shorter than the others have been, but it should still be okay and clarify something, too. Maybe.

* * *

_One person._

_It was all about one person._

_The trouble was, they all misunderstood just which of those one people it was._

* * *

He should be a performer. In some ways, he had always been a consummate one, always acting for someone—the humans, friends or otherwise, the enemy, or even himself. He was the best, far better than anyone who'd ever been hired or paid to play such a part.

Not one of them ever seemed to see it, the way his hearts were breaking as he put on the grand spectacle and usually saved the world at the same time. This was a bit different, as he was only playing to a select audience and not under the threat of thousands of lives.

He even had a very convincing assistant for his act, and yet somehow that made it all the worse. Because his son somehow knew him well enough to play off of him, to act the part just the same as he was, with perfect timing and no rehearsal or hesitation, not where his companion was struggling to understand what he was doing.

The audience was. Some of them actually believed that he would do it—whether the it in question was chucking someone into a black hole or allowing them to be forever tortured by replaying his crimes.

None of them understood that this was about keeping them from seeing just how much it hurt to know that he would be, in no time at all, willingly forgetting his own son and granddaughter, making himself alone in the universe again.

By choice.

“So?” The Doctor asked, opening the door to show off the Lion's head nebula. “Do we look like we're in space yet?”

“Bloody hell,” Mark said, staring at it.

“That's incredible,” his daughter said, going toward the doors until both her parents yanked her back. “Mum, look.”

“I am,” Beth said. They were all kind of awestruck, all but the one who needed to be suitably impressed. The one who needed to believe more than anyone.

“Might need something more than that to convince this one,” Hardy said. “Somehow I thought I was more of a skeptic.”

“Could just chuck him out here, right?”

The Doctor nodded. “True, but there is very little finesse in that, and I myself rather disliking it. No style, no panache. Everything should have panache. And a banana—oi, are you giggling over there?”

The usual culprit—Rose—was only frowning at him. No, the laughter came from his very own ginger granddaughter. She was the one giggling at him, and that smile she had—absolute perfection. Of course Hardy would risk everything, all of time, to preserve her timeline and keep her alive.

“Sorry, Gramps,” she said with a cheeky grin.

He wagged a finger at her, ignoring the pang of knowing he'd be letting her go as well. “I'll let that one pass. Just the one, mind you. So, a nebula through the doors isn't enough for this little human. Or is it the shadow that doesn't like it? No matter. We can go for our next trick—oh, that's a bit—never mind that now. Too complicated and definitely timey-wimey. No, we need a planet. Alien ground. A place that would be so undeniably alien as to be proof of everything, and yet safe enough for our youngest passengers. Hmm...”

“Um, Doctor,” Rose and Sarah Jane began at the same time, frowning. They stopped, looking at each other. Rose shrugged, and Sarah Jane winced. “You know it almost isn't safe traveling with you. You never mean for it to happen—you want to explore, see great things, meet new life—but it isn't always what you want.”

“We said trouble was just the bits in between, and it is, but it's not,” Rose added. “If we go to a planet, we could end up in the middle of a war. Again. Or something else that's just as bad.”

The Doctor looked at the TARDIS. “Would you do that? Put us all in harm's way like that?”

The TARDIS made an offended noise, letting him know in no uncertain terms through their bond that she would never do such a thing.

“I thought not, especially not with two such very important passengers on board. Very well,” the Doctor said, giving the console a pat. “Once more into the breach. Well, not the breach, but you know what I mean. Somewhere nice and safe but very alien. No, not France. That's not what I meant by another world.”

His granddaughter laughed again, and the Doctor wished he really could commit that sound to memory as something he would never, ever lose.

Except he would. He would lose it, and on purpose, too.

* * *

The planet was like technicolor vomit, and Ellie could tell at a glance that Hardy hated it. She wanted to laugh at him, but he wasn't just grumbling because the grass was purple and the sky yellow. The leaves shaken by the breeze were blue, but it wasn't cold. The place was warm enough. It wasn't that. No, Ellie knew the man better than that by now.

She'd missed his heart condition at first, but then he was an expert at using his harsh personality as a weapon, keeping those he didn't want knowing his secrets far away, irritating them so that they didn't look closer even if they were near enough to see it.

He'd certainly fooled her, though Joe had, too, and she hated them both for it.

That didn't mean she wasn't aware of what was going on with Hardy now. He wasn't like the Doctor, plastering on that mask of happiness and insanity, bouncing about so no one saw the pain. Hardy grumbled and fussed, taking issue with everything around him.

“If we take pictures of this place, people will just think we photoshopped it,” Chloe said, but that didn't stop her from taking out her phone and snapping up several of her mum and dad with Lizzie, who had one of the blue leaves in her tiny hand.

“Who cares what they think?” Daisy asked. “We're on _another_ planet. And I can feel it turning. Wow.”

“Doctor,” Beth began, frowning. “There isn't anything in the air here to worry about, is there?”

“Not a thing. Well, I say not a thing when we have Joe Miller over there, but no, not a thing,” the Doctor said, grinning brightly. “Daisy Hardy. Time Lady. I like it. Has a bit of a ring to it, doesn't it? That is to say, as her father is a Time demi-Lord, that makes her just a bit more sensitive to the universe, including the tilt of a planet. Can be overwhelming at times, but she's adapted brilliantly.”

“What?”

The Doctor waved his hand, dismissing the entire conversation. He kept the smile, but his eyes were pained as he watched Daisy roam the planet. Hardy looked about the same, standing next to his father, both of them in pain.

“Mum?” Tom asked, and Ellie looked at him. “I'll take Fred if you want.”

She shook her head. “No, Tom, it's fine. You've been great, looking after your brother, but I've got him, and I'd rather hold onto him while we're on an alien planet. You're just lucky I'm not making you hold my hand.”

“Mum,” he said, making a face. She laughed, reaching over to ruffle his hair. He pulled away from her and went over to Chloe's side.

Sarah Jane sighed. “I thought I'd gotten over this. That I'd moved on.”

Ellie frowned, stopping short of putting Fred on the ground. “How can you? Danny dying... it changed all of us. And this... I shouldn't say it, but it's bigger. There are aliens. So many of them. Other worlds. And he can go there. He can go anywhere. I don't know. I used to think my life couldn't get worse than finding out what my husband had done to my best friend's son. Now I know it can.”

Sarah Jane looked over at Hardy and the Doctor. “Worse yet infinitely more wonderful at the same time. Bit like having a child. It changes everything, and it's terrifying, but you wouldn't trade a minute with those boys, would you?”

Ellie shook her head, holding Fred's hands so he could walk. “No.”

“You just hate how things ended with your husband,” Sarah Jane said, and Ellie sighed. “I... When things started to deteriorate between me and Stuart, I felt like... like everything was slipping away from me. Oh, I had my career, all three of them—journalist, novelist, clandestine alien hunter—but my son had started to distance himself from me, and my husband was a stranger. A drunk stranger whose temper was nothing like the shy man who'd stumbled over himself meeting me. At the end, I didn't know who Stuart was, and he almost cost me my son.”

“What?” Ellie demanded. “Was he abusive? Did he hurt you? Or your son?”

“Not with anything more than his words, but they were vicious enough at times,” Sarah Jane said. “No, it was more that Alec started to withdraw, and after that night, he started putting up walls he still hasn't let down.”

Ellie's eyes went back to Joe. “I'm still tempted to do that thing with the black hole. Or the torture.”

“That's a very human reaction.”

“If I knew how to drive that thing, I just might,” Ellie said, shaking her head. She sat down, pulling Fred into her lap. “I could have killed him when I first found out. I was so angry, so betrayed. He was eleven. Danny was just eleven. And I left Joe at home with both the boys. He could have hurt Tom or Fred, and I might never have known, just like I didn't with Danny...”

Hardy's mother knelt down and hugged her, and strangely, Ellie didn't fight it.

* * *

“How much longer?”

The Doctor turned to Hardy, and the two of them shrugged in unison to Jack's question. Hardy didn't want to think about what the other man might be thinking. He was sure it was twisted worse than what he'd known when he'd been assigned to vice. Some of the stuff there made Jack seem tame, though Hardy doubted that was something the man had ever been.

“Half an hour,” Hardy said, since it seemed like his father expected him to answer. He did seem pleased when Hardy did, agreeing with a nod. Hardy tried to ignore it, putting his hands in his pockets. “Give or take.”

“That's it?” Jack asked, frowning. “I figured we'd have to stay here a lot longer and go to a couple more planets, even, before he broke.”

Hardy shook his head. He knew it had taken time for Joe Miller to make that call to the hut, but even then he'd shown himself for what he was. A coward. He wasn't going to last long in the face of either threat, and since everyone seemed to believe the Doctor actually would take Joe to an alien prison or a black hole. 

“Not him. He turned himself in. Twice. Made plenty of mistakes. Not hardened. He'll fold.”

“Good,” Jack said. The Doctor frowned at him, but Jack shook his head. “Not that this isn't fun and all, but I know we all agree we've had too many conversations about things that a child killer should not know about all in front of him.”

“There's a very good chance this will all seem one horrible dream or delusion to him,” the Doctor said. “In fact, I'd go so far as to say that there's a thirty-seven percent chance that his mental state deteriorates completely to where his sanity disappears.”

“More like forty-six,” Hardy corrected. “He managed to delude himself into thinking that he wasn't to blame for Danny's death and kept that up during the trial. He's susceptible. This eye sore of a planet might even help him along.”

“You might not want to insult the natives,” Jack told him. “And just because we think this planet isn't inhabited doesn't mean—”

“Jack,” the Doctor interrupted, pointing to the sky. The other man frowned, probably assuming the small flecks were just part of the weather or even the sky itself. “Those are the inhabitants. Who are actually quite colorblind, poor things. They don't understand. And even with their telepathic communication, they have no idea what my son said. It's really not a part of their world view, aesthetics, I mean. They don't care about that sort of thing.”

“Suppose that's good to know,” Jack said. “They... are okay with visitors, right?”

“Oi, I specifically asked for a safe planet. You're insulting the TARDIS now, thinking she'd go against that. And she wouldn't,” the Doctor said. He looked at Hardy, and he understood—the TARDIS wouldn't do anything that risked Daisy's life. That was why the ship had let him know which lever to pull to take them back into normal space.

“Right,” Jack agreed. “So... half an hour?”

“Yup,” the Doctor said. He frowned. “What's with the smile? What trouble could you possibly be planning here?”

“No trouble,” Jack said. “Just congratulating myself on a job well done. Well, all of us. It's not like you two didn't sell it. I mean, really, if I were still a con man, I'd want both of you as a part of my team. You played off each other perfectly. That the Time Lord thing? Telepathy. Ooh, now that would be impressive as a part of a con—”

“No, it wouldn't,” the Doctor said. Jack grinned before walking away. The Doctor shook his head as he watched him leave, going over to flirt with the baby. “Impossible man.”

“I don't know how you stand him.”

“Well, he was right about one thing,” the Doctor said, smiling. “We do work well together. Almost a shame. Can't be sure we'll get to again, and we never did before—”

“Who says we didn't?”


	23. Time for Revelations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hardy shares a moment with the Doctor, but there's still one very pesky matter to deal with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is one of those "that escalated quickly" moments. The first part is very fluffy, and it owes a lot to me wishing I could write multi-Doctor fics with any kind of success. I just don't know enough about the other Doctors to do it, and sadly, my season one was lost after a foolish but generous lending of it to my nephew. 
> 
> Still, that's how it started. If I could, I'd do a whole series of ficlets where Hardy meets all his father's regenerations at various points in time. That would take a lot away from this story, and as I said before, I have very little knowledge/access to Classic Who.

* * *

_All things equal, everything had a cost._

_They said that happiness could not be bought._

_That did not mean that it did not have a cost._

_Or that someone wouldn't have to pay it._

* * *

“We didn't. Couldn't,” the Doctor said, though a part of him wanted it. He would love to take his son out to the stars like he had so many companions. Or investigating, as he did so many times, rooting out problems and conspiracies and aliens. Even something as ordinary as a human on human murder would do, just to have a chance to work with his son. Hardy was almost as brilliant as the Doctor was, and while he would never have believed it before, the Doctor missed being able to interact with other Time Lords. The only thing close to that now was his son—possibly his granddaughter. “Imagine the damage to the timelines. If I'd known about you being my child before now, I honestly don't know what I might have done. Or what my other regenerations might have done, for that matter.”

Hardy nodded.

The Doctor frowned, appraising his son with suspicion. “All right. Out with it. What do you know that you're not saying?”

Hardy shrugged. The Doctor thought he might have even smirked before he left to walk over to his daughter's side. Daisy, spinning around in a circle like she was dancing around a May pole had him distracted, and he almost wished that the specks in the air were something more like snow that could get caught in her ginger hair.

He could, he supposed, create that sort of atmospheric disturbance, but no, that would be excessive. And a distraction. He knew he was not wanting to rush the time he had left with his family, but that didn't mean they should just lark about all the time.

Well, maybe just a little.

“We should go to a planet with snow next, yes?” the Doctor asked, and everyone turned to stare at him. “Sorry. I may have been having a bit of a moment. You look like you should have snowflakes in your hair, Daisy.”

She stopped, blushing. “Um...”

“Don't worry about it,” Sarah Jane told her, and the Doctor wished he'd seen more of her as a mother and a grandmother before now. He had missed so much with his son. Just more regrets, he supposed, ones he should want to forget. “You're allowed to enjoy yourself. Never mind being 'cool.'”

“Can't get much cooler than being on another planet,” Rose said, grinning. “Right, um...”

“Chloe,” the other girl said, reaching over to let her sister wrap her little hand over her finger.

“Daisy, darling, you still have that picture on your phone?” Hardy asked. “The one with the... that thing and the snow... Bloody hell. You know the one I mean, don't you?”

She laughed. “The one where you're being a big sop? You remember it, Gran, right? It was just after Mum tried to throw out Dad's daft old scarf.”

Sarah Jane smiled, and Daisy bounced over to him, excited to show off her prize. He pulled out his glasses and put them on, rewarded by a rather large smile from her. “What?”

“You do that just the way Dad does,” she told him, and the Doctor frowned. A part of him was very pleased, and another part of him marveled at the curiosities of life, since he had his brainy specs, like his fifth regeneration, but his son had them, too, did he? And he used them in front of his daughter, who seemed to like it and had made it a tie between them all.

“Who wears them better?” the Doctor asked. “Him or me?”

“Depends,” she said. “Yours have thicker frames, and they wouldn't look as good on Dad, especially with his scruff. Dad's are thinner, and they couldn't compete with your hair.”

The Doctor grinned. Hardy rolled his eyes. _“Molto bene._ Show me the picture.”

Daisy did, holding the phone out so he could see the screen. She did, indeed, have snowflakes in her hair, as did Hardy. He had his arms around her, and she was snuggled up against him so tight it should have been impossible.

Especially with the matching scarves. The very long, familiarly patterned matching scarves.

“You cheeky monkey,” the Doctor said, looking over at his son. “That's _my_ scarf.”

* * *

_Sarah Jane stopped short, staring down at her son. She didn't know how to react. Alec hated when she found him adorable, but he was. Her son was always older than his age, and she lost these moments more and more as he continued to grow. Soon they'd be all but gone, since he was becoming more and more like his father—at least in respect to his gruffness—and she hated that. She wanted to hold onto his innocence as long as she could._

_Though perhaps it was already over._

_She swallowed. “Alec, sweetheart, where did you get that scarf?”_

_He looked up, almost drowning in that thing—it could have swallowed his father at his tallest—and Alec was just a boy still, at least in body. She could almost see that scarf coming alive and swallowing him whole._

_“A man gave it to me.”_

_She choked. “A man? What man?”_

_Alec shrugged. “Just a man.”_

_“What did he look like? Did you know him? Did he... seem to know you?”_

_“Brown hair. Curly. Brown suit. Hat. Waistcoat,” Alec said. He looked at her. “What aren't you telling me? Why would you be afraid of some man—bit daft, weird teeth—who gave me a scarf? This that stranger danger thing those shows are on about? I mean, he did offer me candy—a jelly baby—but who knows how long it was in his pocket?”_

_Sarah Jane tried to control her reaction to what her son had just said. That sounded very much like her Doctor, and he'd actually crossed paths with his future son. This was a disaster. “What did he say to you? Anything? Why did he give you the scarf?”_

_“He asked me why I wasn't at the academy,” Alec answered, lifting the end of the scarf. “I said it was full of dunderheads.”_

_“Dunderheads?”_

_Alec gave her a look that suggested he'd used much worse language, but she let that pass since she needed to know what had happened and if somehow it was all over. She couldn't bear that thought, and she needed to know what she was going to do now. “He laughed.”_

_“And?”_

_Alec shrugged again. “Just that.”_

_“Just that?”_

_Alec looked just the slightest bit sheepish. Not much, being half Time Lord. “He may have said to hold his scarf while he took care of something, and I might not have waited very long for him to come back.”_

_She frowned. “How long?”_

_“Five minutes?”_

_Heaven help her, she laughed._

* * *

“That doesn't really fit the definition of working together, you know,” the Doctor said, sounding a bit like he was pouting. “I gave you one task—a very simple one, one anyone could have handled—and you mucked it up.”

Hardy shrugged. “Strange man comes along, asks me about school, offers me candy, and expects me to sit there waiting with his scarf. I'm supposed to be smart. Brilliant, she always said. How brilliant would it have been to wait around for a possible—”

“Best not, sir,” Miller said, and Hardy glanced at the audience he'd forgotten they had. Of course his mother knew that Hardy could have encountered a pedophile that day. Back when he was a child, he'd thought that was why she'd panicked so much when she heard about him meeting that man. Daisy didn't need to know that issue had been raised about her grandfather, the Latimers didn't need the reminders of why their son had died, and same went for Miller.

And there was her husband, too. 

No, best avoid that subject.

“I'm sorry,” Mark said, frowning. “What is all this about a scarf?”

“A near catastrophe that is now an endearing anecdote,” his mother said. His father would probably have said something about it being timey-wimey and made the confusion worse. “Let us just say that Daisy has a scarf that's something of an heirloom. It's a long story.”

“And I think it really is time that we go,” the Doctor said. “You've said your goodbyes, yes? Ellie, you are ready to leave your husband behind? Do you have anything to say to your father? Because... this is a good enough place to leave him—”

“What?” Beth asked. “I thought you said you had a prison or there's still that black hole. You can't—he doesn't—Tom, I know he's your father, but he murdered Danny. He can't just... This place is too good for him.”

Miller's son looked at his father. “You're right. It is too good for him. We can't leave him here. He'd ruin this place.”

“Not to worry. We won't let him ruin this place,” the Doctor assured him. “To the TARDIS, then. We'll find a better place for your father—oh, it would seem he wants to talk now. Give us a minute, then. Jack, if you will escort our friend inside—”

“Already on it, Doctor,” Jack said, hauling Joe up to his feet and taking him into the TARDIS.

“Daisy,” Hardy said, looking at his daughter. “Keep an eye on them.”

“You're not actually leaving her in charge of the rest of us just because she's part Time Lord, are you? Because that's ridiculous,” Miller said, shaking her head as the Doctor walked inside his ship. “He's my husband. Whatever he has to say, I'm gonna hear it, and keeping it from Beth and Mark isn't really—”

“You won't want to hear what he has to say,” Hardy said, directing his words to the Latimers. Having a killer interact with the family was never anything but pain. Answers weren't enough, and he'd seen too many of them use opportunities like that just to torment their victims more. He wouldn't be a part of that again. “It's only going to hurt. I wouldn't even let Miller in there except we don't have the time to argue with her about it, not even with a bloody time machine.”

He turned and followed the fixed point into the TARDIS, aware that Miller was on his heels. The Doctor turned back and used his screwdriver on the door as soon as they were inside.

“You locked them out?” Miller asked. “What if something happens?”

“We'll know,” the Doctor said. “Daisy.”

“Right,” she muttered, shaking her head. “Wait, did you leave Rose and Sarah Jane out there, too?”

“Sometimes you want to make the decision you already know your moral compass will disagree with,” Jack said. “You don't let them close. Besides, they can handle themselves if something was going to go wrong. Right, Doc?”

The Doctor nodded. “I think it is best we hear what Mr. Miller has to say for himself.”

* * *

Ellie leaned against the railing, trying to keep herself calm. She didn't need to look at Hardy or the Doctor to know that they expected the worst of whatever was to come next. Hardy had dipped into his quiet fury, and that seemed to be inherited because his father had the same expression, but she had a sinking, sick feeling in her stomach. Whatever Joe was about to tell them, Hardy was right to keep it from Mark and Beth, and she didn't want Tom hearing this.

She wasn't sure _she_ could hear it, but she had to. That was the price she paid for having once loved that man, the one who was really a monster. She tensed Jack went over to Joe, taking the gag out of his mouth.

“Talk,” the Doctor ordered, pointing the screwdriver at him. He almost seemed relaxed, but the threat was still there all the same. “What do you have to say for yourself? And I will remind you that you very nearly killed my granddaughter, so I would make it good. Very good.”

Joe swallowed, looking to her like he expected her to help. She folded her arms across her chest. He didn't get it, did he? She wasn't going back to him. Not ever. “Ellie—”

“Don't. This isn't about us. You are done in our lives. I told you that. I told you if you came back after the boys, I'd kill you. And you still came, you bastard.”

Joe sighed. This time he addressed himself to Hardy. “I'll turn myself in.”

Hardy snorted. “You did that once. They won't try you again without new evidence. You attacking my daughter and Beth Latimer won't be enough.”

What he meant was that they couldn't explain any of the rest of it, since the TARDIS had been their transportation the entire time, and Beth didn't show any signs of her injuries. At all. The Doctor must have done that with his advanced medicine, and that made it even less possible to prove a case.

“I confessed.”

“And it's bloody useless, or have you forgotten that?” Hardy demanded. “They won't do anything without a new crime or new evidence. The town gave you mercy. They could have killed you. You could have been another Jack Marshall.”

Joe winced. “I know. And I—”

“Just pick a bloody spot,” Ellie said. “You are not going near the boys again. I like the idea of leaving you here. You can't hurt anyone here.”

“I said I'd turn myself in,” Joe said, and Ellie shook her head, wanting to smack him. That wasn't an excuse or an apology for what he'd done. That was not an acceptable alternative.

“You shit,” Ellie said. “Forget it. You don't get a choice.”

“I'll turn myself in,” Joe repeated.

“No,” the Doctor said, his voice full of horror, and Ellie frowned at him even as Hardy voiced what his father was thinking.

“There was another child,” Hardy said. “You hurt another boy, didn't you?”

“You bastard.” She must have screamed it. She started across the ship toward her husband, needing to hurt him. He had done it twice. He'd killed. Or maybe he hadn't killed, but he'd done enough damage, hadn't he? He'd molested someone just like he'd been close to doing with Danny.

She hit a wall of flesh, and for someone as skinny as Hardy was, he was one hell of a barrier. He caught her, holding her back even as she fought him. “Let me go. Danny was eleven. He was—oh, God. It was Tom. It had to be, wasn't it? I'll kill him. I'm gonna—”

“It was in Cardiff, wasn't it?” the Doctor asked, his voice cold, and it wasn't a question as much as a confirmation. He already knew. “This other child you harmed, you did it there, didn't you? That is why you were in Broadchurch.”

Joe glared at him. Jack frowned. “Cardiff. The rift. That shadow. You think it came from the rift.”

“Yes, you bloody moron,” Hardy snapped, though it wasn't like they had that conversation when Jack was there. “Damn it, Miller, stop hitting me. I'm not the enemy.”

She stilled, though she still squirmed. “Let go of me, and I won't hit you. I'll hit him instead.”

“No.” The Doctor said, and she started to push at Hardy's hold again. When the hell did he get this bloody strong? She could have knocked him over easily only a few days ago. 

“He's kind of this weird sort of pacifist,” Jack said. He focused on Joe. “That doesn't hold for the rest of us, so I'd start talking again.”

Joe continued to glare, this time at Jack instead of the Doctor. Picking up on that, the Doctor nodded to his son. Ellie almost expected to be foisted off to someone else as Hardy spoke.

“Did you kill that boy?”

Joe nodded. And Ellie heard herself scream.


	24. Time for Confessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joe has some information to disclose, but he's not the only one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I admit, when I started this, it was never my intention to drag on the bit with Joe as long as I have done. It's just that the other stuff kept pushing it to the side.
> 
> And I really am tempted to write the side story about when Hardy was seventeen and another one which is pure fluff involving Daisy and the Doctor. So many possibilities. It's driving me insane.
> 
> Well, more insane.

* * *

_Light cannot exist without dark._

_All about the balance, or so it is said._

_At least, that's the excuse evil needs to exist. Because if there is good, then there must be something else, right?_

* * *

Jack would give it to Ellie, she was one hell of a fighter. She didn't look like one, but then most of his team didn't, not until they were forced to, and a part of him still hated just how much of a weapon he'd turned everyone into. Maybe not so much with Owen, but Tosh and Gwen, even Ianto. Not that Jack could forget his worst failure. Suzie.

He shook that off, going to Alec's side to help, as the Doctor's son was struggling, about to lose control of her. She was strong, and he was looking winded enough to concern the Doctor.

“Here, let me take her.”

“You can't—he killed a child—another boy—that bastard—we have to—”

“Not like this,” the Doctor said. Jack didn't know that he'd convince Ellie that it violence wasn't the answer. Jack didn't really agree himself. Joe Miller had killed two boys. Someone had to stop him, and making him pay for what he'd done had to happen. If he'd gotten away with one murder, why not two? It wasn't like this new confession could go to court. They were hearing on the TARDIS.

On another planet.

“He killed another boy,” Ellie said. “What if it was Tom? Or Daisy?”

“Oh, that is not fair,” the Doctor said. “No using Daisy as emotional blackmail. Ever. You don't want to see how I'll react to that. Or how he will.”

Alec leaned against the central console. Jack thought he might be using it for support, but he didn't figure he should point it out to anyone. The Doctor already knew, and Joe Miller didn't need to. Besides, he had his hands full.

“Tell us what happened to the other boy,” the Doctor said, turning back to Joe. “What was his name? How old was he?”

Joe glared at him, and Jack frowned. “Come on. You already confessed. Your wife is ready to kill you. Just tell us.”

The Doctor tapped his screwdriver on his arm, thinking. Normally, he'd be talking along with it, at least in this regeneration. He should be babbling on mile a minute, and yet he wasn't. Jack didn't like it.

“Was this one an accident, too?” Alec asked. “You lose control of that temper of yours that time? You did, didn't you? The first time, you were too obvious. That boy knew what you were doing. And that was why he had to die.”

Joe lowered his head. “I just asked a question. Put a hand on his shoulder... He... I'd seen him before. Was a crash, and I helped his mother. She was alone, almost died. Weeks of recovery ahead of her. I just thought... I thought I was doing a good thing, checking on them...”

“You bastard,” Ellie said, pulling on Jack's hold again, and he held her tight, even as he wanted to beat that man senseless himself.

“I just... We were talking, and I put my hand on his shoulder. I was comforting him. I thought I was... And then... he looked up at me. And... he ran. He ran for the stairs and he fell, and I... I tried to save him, but I couldn't.”

“So you left Cardiff,” Alec said. “You buried it, lied about it to yourself. Said it was an accident, that you weren't targeting a child. You met Miller, married her, pretended that you were normal. All the while that was waiting in you, waiting for another chance. If it hadn't been Danny, it would have been Tom. Or Fred.”

Joe shook his head. “I'm not that man.”

“Oh, but you are,” the Doctor said. “You very much are. You cling to a number of lies to convince yourself you're not responsible for any of this, but you are.”

“You had practice,” Alec spat, disgusted. Somehow the condemnation sounded worse in his accent, coming as it did with the same dangerous look that was in the Doctor's eyes. “Years of it. You perfected your methods. Tried it out on the tourists, didn't you? Tested just how far to push them. They'd be too scared to say anything, and even if they did, they left soon enough. No one ever connected that to you.”

“No,” Ellie said, and Alec looked back at her. “You said it wasn't planned. The murder... He improvised. Used whatever he could. He didn't...”

“He didn't plan the murder,” Alec corrected. “He planned the seduction.”

Jack winced. Normally, he was up for a good seduction, but that made him sick. Ellie started fighting again, and Alec came back to her side, kneeling down in front of her. She looked up at him, rage and pain all over her face.

Alec was gentle and cruel all at the same time. “He had to have, Miller. None of you saw anything. No one in this town ever suspected him. You lived with him and didn't know. You couldn't—because he knew how to cover up what he was doing. He felt guilty after Jack Marshall died, but even then, it wasn't visible. He was still their friend and your husband, and no one saw it.”

She swallowed. “Did you?”

Jack thought he might have, this half-alien policeman, but it was hard to be sure. The Doctor hid so much, and his son was like him in that respect.

“We can't take him back to Earth.”

“What?” Ellie asked, confused.

“I confessed,” Joe said. “You can. I'll go to prison. I'll plead guilty this time. That's what you want, isn't it?”

“It's what you want,” the Doctor said, watching him with suspicion. “And that concerns me a great deal. Before, you denied your guilt. You wanted the whole town to suffer, not yourself, but now you would admit to something you've hidden for years and allow yourself to be locked away? No, it doesn't fit. Not with everything I know of you.”

“You think it's the shadow?” Jack asked. “That thing that's attached itself to him wants him to confess? Why?”

The Doctor shrugged. “Either he's lying about pleading guilty and intends to cause that pain all over again—”

“Or he's looking for a chance to escape,” Jack said. “He could. No ordinary human prison would be able to contain it. They wouldn't even know to track it.”

“Except it already had the chance to escape,” the Doctor said, frowning. “When it left Joe in that hut, it could have gone anywhere, to anyone in Broadchurch. It didn't. It came back to Joe Miller.”

Jack frowned. “Why? Just for the pain it could cause?”

“That's... that's stupid,” Ellie said, almost calm now. “You're all here. You'd know. You've been talking about chucking him into a bloody black hole or locking him up for life.”

“Ah, well,” the Doctor grimaced. “It's very, very true that we are aware of him. Yes, that we are. And we would stop him, though Jack has a point about ordinary prisons. None of them could hold it. Yet that is not the biggest problem. Nor is it even the way it seems unwilling to respond to questions unless they're posed by Hardy.”

“Yeah,” Jack said. “What is that? Something to do with it coming through the rift?”

“Well...”

“Just say it,” Alec told him. “Won't do you a bloody bit of good to keep it from them.”

“Keep what?” Jack asked, now very worried. The Doctor keeping things from his companions wasn't unusual, but it was almost never good. “Doctor?”

“It is possible the shadow wants to remain with Joe because it thinks it has figured out how to gain control of him after all of these years.”

* * *

“What?” Ellie asked, thinking she was going to repeat that bit in the interrogation room, this time all over the TARDIS floor.

“Oh, mind you, I don't think it has reached that stage. Not yet, at least, but I think it wants to try, doesn't it?” the Doctor asked, turning back to Joe. He said nothing. The Doctor rolled his eyes. “Really? That is getting quite old, I must say.”

“Maybe the only answering your son thing is more of a concern than you thought,” Jack said, and Ellie pushed at him, able to free herself now that he was distracted. She looked at Joe with hate and disgust, but she was tired and sick. She didn't have it in her to beat him properly. And now, with what the Doctor said—was Joe a victim, too? She didn't know. She couldn't think.

“A tie to the rift, perhaps,” the Doctor said. “Or perhaps something else, something to do with—I need another look. I'm sorry. I have to see if I can find what ties you to the shadow and why it seems to obey you.”

Hardy turned back to him. “I do not want you in my head. You know I don't.”

“I know,” the Doctor said. He studied Joe with a frown. “He confessed to you before, didn't he? Yes, you were alone—that's some kind of breach of protocol, isn't it? That was part of how his lawyers got it thrown out of court. You taking it alone and her attacking him. You had no one with you to verify what was said in that garden shed.”

“And you think that it was something to do with whatever is making Joe obey him now?” Jack asked. “Why him and not you? You're the Time Lord. He's only half.”

“It's not about genetics. It's something else. Some kind of emotional tie...” The Doctor said, frowning. “The emotional resonance was at spots all tied not just to Joe Miller and Danny Latimer, but also to Hardy. That spot where you almost died...”

“What exactly does that mean?” Ellie asked. “Wait. Emotional resonance—what was that? What are we talking about? Would someone please make some bloody sense?”

“Right. Sorry. That was Rose,” the Doctor said. “Rose was with me when I tracked them, including when I found the spot near those boats where he collapsed. The spots all connected to the shadow, but most of them also connected to Alec. He was there, where the body was found, and also where the death occurred... As a telepath without proper shields.”

“And?”

“And that is just the sort of thing an emotion eating shadow would want. It would heighten the emotions of anyone around it. As much as it might want to gain control of Joe, it also appreciates the hand that fed it, however unintentional that might have been.”

“What?” Ellie repeated, feeling stupid and hating it. “What are you talking about?”

“As a Time demi-Lord, my son is telepathic. Touch telepathic, and I've never had great control over it myself,” the Doctor answered. “We did discuss this before.”

“No, you didn't,” Hardy corrected. “You didn't explain half of it before, and definitely not what it meant to the shadow.”

“So, what, it wants out of control emotions from everyone? That way it can gorge itself and get stronger? That's what it's doing?” Jack asked. Then he tensed, swearing under his breath. “The ghost machine. It's like that, isn't it?”

“The what?”

“We found an alien device. Based on nanotechnology. It was able to tap into emotional energy. Pulled it from across time, even _showed_ it. Like reliving someone else's memories. Gwen saw a boy who was evacuated in World War II. Owen witnessed a murder. It... It even showed the future.”

Ellie wanted to say he was daft, that wasn't possible, but from the way the Doctor and Hardy reacted, they didn't think it was. Great. Her life was completely and utterly insane now. “And you think that's what this shadow is after?”

“If it came through the rift, there's no telling where it is in its evolutionary development. It could be that it was the ancestor of the aliens who did create the device,” Jack told her. “The rift is in space and time. It could have come through from a time before its society reached the level of technology required for the device, but that doesn't mean it doesn't share that goal.”

Ellie put a hand to her head. “Exactly _what_ does that mean?”

“Nothing we didn't already know, which was that we had to separate the shadow from its host before we let him confess,” the Doctor said. “Oh, I see. You thought we hadn't already thought of that. I'm insulted. I'm brilliant, you know, and so is my son. And like his father, he also ensures he has the best around him. That said, I do believe we need a bit of a containment field—oh, and so there it is. Can't have you shifting to someone else before we have you both returned where you belong.”

Ellie frowned. “What if he doesn't confess and take the plea now?”

“There's always—” Jack stopped himself. Then he gave them all a very big grin that felt insincere despite his words. “Trust me, there's something I can do about that.”

“Jack—”

“I can't tell you, Doc, but I'm not lying. I promise. If something goes wrong, they'll have a place to take him. Your son will, since you will forget.”

The Doctor nodded. “Right. Time to collect the others, then.”

* * *

“Was it bad?” Rose asked, coming up next to the Doctor and taking his hand. She leaned against him, trying to keep a good look at his face so she could tell what he would need, every little flicker of emotion in his eyes. She knew that he was already struggling—he'd discovered a family that he was going to have to lose, and that was bad enough, but this Joe Miller guy had killed a kid and threatened his granddaughter, and she was afraid that might push things too far, if losing his son and granddaughter didn't already do that.

“It was... unfortunate,” the Doctor answered. He lowered his voice, speaking near her ear. “There was another child. Well, one that died. Others that were at least put in an inappropriate position.”

She winced. “Really?”

The Doctor nodded. “Still, we've come to an agreement. Mr. Miller is going to confess to a previous crime, and he will plead guilty this time.”

“You're sure he'll confess?” Beth asked. “And this other crime—it's enough to keep him locked up? He won't get out again, won't hurt anyone else?”

“That is the idea, yes,” the Doctor said, though Rose saw him hiding a grimace about being overheard. He should have been quieter with his second statement, but at least they hadn't heard all of it. She didn't know how anyone else would take knowing that Joe had hurt other kids. Even she had a hard time with that, and she wasn't a mother or a part of the town.

“We thought that last time,” Mark said. “What's to stop it from all falling apart again?”

“Oh, plenty of things. Though we will need to make a trip or two,” the Doctor said, flashing them both a grin, the one that Rose knew was not entirely honest. “So we're going to make a stop at your home, and after that, a boring little side thing to get some evidence—you may as well stay home for that, no need dragging the children everywhere, and we'll finish fixing things. Not to worry. All in hand. Good hands, even. See?”

He wiggled his fingers, and then he bounced off to the console, pushing buttons and levers as he went. Rose smiled, still loving the way he did that. She could watch him for hours, and she still didn't really understand how the TARDIS worked. Most of the time, she thought he made it up as he went along, just like his plans.

“And we're off,” the Doctor said, grinning. “Soon to be back at Broadchurch, Dorset. Earth. The solar system. Twenty-fifteen.”

“So... you're just taking us back, and that's... it?” Chloe asked, frowning. “We see one alien planet, and we're just supposed to go back to our lives?”

“Some people do,” Sarah Jane said. “For some, it's even what they want. They'd rather never have seen it at all.”

“Yeah, but not us,” Chloe said. “Not me. That was amazing. I want to see more. A lot more.”

“Chloe,” her dad began, but she shook her head.

“How can you say you want to pretend you never did that? Wasn't that why you cheated on Mum? You were so sick of the same old boring thing. And this? This is not boring. This is incredible. And you didn't have to break any vows to have it.”

Mark grimaced. “It's not our space ship.”

Chloe looked over at the Doctor. “Would you take us out again?”

“Well...” The Doctor took a breath. “That's a bit complicated, but... in spirit, yes. I mean, the TARDIS does feel crowded, but I've certainly had worse guests aboard. Still, you were... tolerable, despite the circumstances and the very domestic nature of it all—oh, if my last regeneration had been here, this would have been a _much_ different story—and so it's not that I am opposed to the idea. Not at all. It's just that there are things that must be done now.”

“So, later, then. You could take us.”

“Yes,” the Doctor agreed, though Rose knew that he wouldn't. He was preparing to leave all of this behind forever. He'd probably lock Broadchurch out of the TARDIS' programming so he'd never come here by accident.

“Doctor,” Jack said. “Can I make a suggestion?”

“Not now, Jack. Honestly, is sex all you think about?” the Doctor said, pointedly ignoring what Jack actually meant. “And in front of children, too. A little decorum, please?”

“Bloody hell,” Hardy muttered, shaking his head. “Are we there yet?”

* * *

“You know,” Jack said, eyes on the doors that the Latimers had just gone through. Miller had sent her sons along with them, but she stayed behind. That was a problem, but Hardy knew she wasn't about to leave her husband's fate in their hands alone. “If you're worried about paradoxes, you probably should make sure none of them remember this.”

“What?” Miller demanded. “No. You can't do that. Mark and Beth have lost enough already. And Chloe's still trying to find a way to be happy and not guilty for being happy since her brother died. No. You can't.”

“I never said I was,” the Doctor told her. Jack stared at him, and he held up a hand. “You may work that way, but I don't. Whether people believe me after what they see or not is their choice, not mine. I have to forget because I risk too many timelines if I don't. I risk my son and granddaughter. The Latimers don't have to, and I won't force them. Had they panicked and had breakdowns, perhaps your solution would have more appeal, but as it stands... No.”

“And you,” Jack said, turning to Hardy. “Are you okay with letting them remember? Because they could tell everyone that you are not human. Not fully. Same with your daughter. That is... it's not a good thing to be in many places and times, though... you probably know that.”

“I'm well acquainted with the worst of humanity,” Hardy said. “I don't need a reminder.”

“I don't know. I thought I'd seen everything before, but some of it still manages to surprise me,” Jack said, shaking his head.

“I'm a detective inspector,” Hardy told him, well aware that he could have made DCI if he had a better attitude and hadn't taken the blame for Sandbrook. “And apparently half Time Lord. Exactly what is supposed to surprise me?”

“He's got a point,” Rose told Jack, who grunted. She gave him a smile before turning back to the Doctor. “So... what now?”

“Cardiff,” the Doctor said. “The old case is there, and if that one is going to turn himself in and go through a trial, better here than there, dragging them all through this again.”

“Ah. I might actually be able to help with that,” Jack said, and the Doctor frowned. “Oh. I see. You think I just popped in from the gamestation, is that it? And how do I know this other stuff about you if all I've been doing since you left me is hanging about there? I have a life, you know. I even chose to go back to it rather than stay with you, traveling in the TARDIS again. And I think I can help with more than one problem. Just... take us to Cardiff. You can even refuel the TARDIS while you're there.”

“Are you sure about this, Jack?”

“You're going to forget all of it anyway, and even if you weren't, you need somewhere to keep him that isn't the TARDIS but is prepared to handle an alien threat. There aren't many of those.”

“As much as I don't want to agree with him, he's right. UNIT is rubbish at it,” Hardy said, and the Doctor frowned. “What? Even if I didn't seek the damned aliens out, that didn't mean I didn't find them. Bloody hell, for a bit there it was almost every case. I had to send them somewhere that could contain them. She may never have been UNIT, but she knew them, and I used her contacts.”

“Impossible,” the Doctor said. “If you worked with UNIT, this wouldn't have happened. You... they know me. Right after this regeneration, when the Sycorax came—UNIT knows this face. They'd have pulled you in for testing at the very least, figured out you were my son. Impossible. Something is wrong.”

“Doctor,” his mother said, pained. “It's not what you think.”

“What now?” Hardy demanded. “What did you do? What—”

“I should have known before,” his mother admitted with a wince. “Do you remember that tie pin I gave you? You started wearing suits, always had a tie, even when you were in uniform, and I gave that to you.”

Hardy nodded, still suspicious. “'Course I do. You said... You said it belonged to that man you used to travel with, and most of the time, I figured he was my real father, not the wanker you married. It was all I had of him. Stupid and soppy, but I kept it. Used to wear it every day.”

“You never had a tie pin when we worked together,” Miller said. “Not once. Not even for the funeral.”

“I lost it,” Hardy said. “That day, dragging Pippa out of the river... I never saw it after that.”

Miller winced, not the only one to do so. His mother leaned over the control console, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

“What is it?” Rose asked. “What was so important about that tie pin?”


	25. Time for Torchwood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack leads them to Torchwood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may not have made this very clear before, but Jack comes to this story pretty much fresh off the Year that Never Was. John hasn't shown up, and Owen and Tosh are very much alive. (Yes, I am in denial.)
> 
> And I swear there is a point to this. I'm a little overwhelmed by how long it's taken to get to Jack's part, as well as how much might still be left, but there's a lot I haven't quite explained and don't know exactly how to explain yet, but I'm working on it.

* * *

_“I gave everything I had.”_

_“I know.”_

_“I did what I thought was best.”_

_“I know that, too.”_

_“It wasn't enough, was it?”_

* * *

“What?” Daisy asked, frowning. “What are you talking about? Why does Dad's pin matter? I mean, it was weird when he stopped wearing it, because I used to always play with it when I was little and sitting in his lap or next to him on the sofa, but it's just a pin, right?”

“No,” her gran said, shaking her head. “It wasn't.”

“Of course,” the Doctor exclaimed, hands in his hair and bouncing with the revelation that had just he'd just had. They used to illustrate that in cartoons with a lightbulb going on, but with the Doctor, you saw it happen. “It was a perception filter.”

“A what?”

“Perception filter,” her grandfather said, grinning at her like a lunatic, which she kind of thought he was, but somehow she still liked him. He was like her dad in those moments—rare moments—when he was genuinely happy or obsessed with a project. That year he'd gotten it in his head to build her a playhouse, he'd been like this every time he had a chance to work on it. He'd dragged her around, having her pick out colors and shingles and even curtains. Her mum had gotten annoyed, wanting him to use that energy on things that were actually broken at their house, and they'd fought a lot, almost to where Daisy wanted to ask him not to make it, but one look at his face when she'd tried had stopped her. And didn't her dad deserve to be happy once and while?

“What?” Daisy asked again, still confused. “What is a perception filter?”

“A small way of bending reality,” the Doctor answered. “Tricking it, if you will. You look, but you don't quite see. Not, of course, unless you're looking for it or are sort of immune to its effects. If you know about the filter, it doesn't work. And in this case, you would always have seen your father as he was, but for others looking on him, they would have dismissed any possible resemblance to a Doctor on file as... a momentary confusion, easily forgotten, which is in fact quite fortunate. How brilliant is your grandmother?”

“Very,” Daisy said, smiling at him, and he grinned back.

“You see, Daisy, and this may be slightly difficult to believe, but I've made several enemies over my centuries—”

“Hard to believe?” Her father snorted, and the Doctor pointed a finger at him.

“None of that now,” the Doctor said. “I don't cause trouble everywhere. It just... happens. On occasion. Every once and a while. Well... But that's not important. What is important is that your grandmother made sure that your father was safe. She gave him that tie pin, and without it, people everywhere would have connected the two of us. LINDA, for one, and that Absorbloff could have gone after him and found you—and that would have been horrible—or someone else could have found you. Anyone.”

Jack frowned. “Time Lords can see past them, though.”

“Many times. Most times. Why do you ask?”

Jack shook his head. “No particular reason. Though... you'll get to see another perception filter when we do. I think you'll like what we did with it.”

“Hold on,” Miller said, raising her hand as she did, “if this thing, this pin, was disguising Hardy all this time, what about after he lost it? He was in the papers and on the telly a lot after Sandbrook fell apart, and then again when he got Danny's case and during the trial. Hell, he's the worst cop in Britain.”

“Nice to know she thinks so highly of you,” Jack teased, and her father glared at him.

Even Miller did. “He's not. Karen White had it out for him, tramp. I'm just saying—he's had plenty of exposure since he lost that pin.”

“Hmm. And yet no calls from UNIT, no approach from anyone else at all?” the Doctor asked, turning to her father.

“You think I take UNIT's calls?”

“Excellent point, but again,” the Doctor said. “Any media exposure is a risk for you. And for Daisy.”

“What?” Daisy asked. “Why?”

The Doctor sighed. “I'm the last of the Time Lords. That alone puts you at risk, being my granddaughter. There are people who'd want me dead, people who want to experiment on me, people who want revenge... So many reasons, and for all of them, I am so sorry. This isn't what I'd want for you. Or your father.”

Daisy almost laughed. “Dad gets himself in trouble all the time.”

“Excuse me?”

“Sandbrook, Westwood, Kuner,” Daisy said, folding her arms over her chest. “Would you like me to go through the whole list?”

“Oh, now you sound like your mother,” her father grumbled. “And you're exaggerating. There's not a bloody list.”

“Carey, Hayles, the Davenport twins—”

“Ooh, twins,” Jack interrupted. “Twins are always good. Do tell. Identical or fraternal? Not that it matters, I like them all, but there is something to be said for—”

“Serial killers?” her father finished coldly, and Jack stopped talking, the smile gone. Her father turned to her grandfather. “Let's get this over with. The sooner we're rid of Joe Miller _and_ that thing, the better.”

The Doctor nodded, going back to the console. Then he stopped, looking over at her father. “Isn't it some sort of ritual that parents are supposed to be tormented by attempting to teach their offspring how to drive a vehicle?”

“No,” her father said immediately, but Daisy wasn't about to let him stop her this time.

“Yes,” Daisy disagreed, rushing over to her grandfather's side. “Dad keeps telling me he's not going to teach me to drive, but you could.”

“Oh, you don't actually want to drive with the Doctor,” her gran said, shuddering.

“Oi!”

* * *

“I promise you'll love this,” Jack said, leading the others out of the TARDIS. They'd set down right in middle of Roald Dahl Plass, which was just where he wanted them to be—and slightly surprising given that the Doctor had let Daisy do part of the driving—and while he knew that the Doctor would be mad at him for being involved with Torchwood, at least this time around, he didn't know about Canary Wharf, the Daleks or the Cybermen, didn't know what those idiots had done.

His son did, but Jack had a plan to get Alec alone as soon as he could.

“Over here,” he said, leading them to the hidden lift. “Stand just there, Ellie. And Rose. And you, too, Daisy. Shame we can't all fit, but we're not all scrawny like the Doctor and his son—”

“Shut it,” Alec said, getting laughter from the women.

“And they're off,” Jack said, starting the lift with his wristband. “It will probably take a few trips to go down this way, but that is much more of an entrance than the elevator.”

“Could just have used the TARDIS,” the Doctor muttered, and Jack clapped him on the back, not at all bothered by the grumbling. He'd missed this, among the many things he missed about not traveling with the Doctor anymore.

“Now, I'll take this lovely lady with me, and you two can catch the next one down.”

“Harkness,” Alec ground out. “Hands off my mother.”

Jack just grinned and pulled Sarah Jane closer, stepping onto the newly returned lift and riding it down. The others shouldn't be in too much trouble because no one used that lift by accident, and anyway, he was almost down to explain everything. Almost everything, at least.

Besides, his team was going to forget this. As much as it might be nice to have the Doctor around all the time, he knew they couldn't know about his son eight years before his son found out about his true heritage.

“Well, now, that's not a very warm greeting,” Jack said as he led Sarah Jane over to where the others stood in an impasse. “Where's Ianto? I'd have thought he'd at least offer refreshments.”

“Ianto is off doing whatever the hell it is he does,” Owen grumbled. “You want to explain why there are all these people here? In the base that's supposed to be super secret, coming in through the hidden entrance?”

“More fun that way,” the Doctor said, hopping off the lift before it got all the way down. “Hello, I'm the Doctor.”

“The Doctor,” Owen repeated, looking at Tosh. She shook her head.

“He doesn't look like I remember.”

“Oh, but I remember you,” the Doctor said. “And that fake alien. Well, I say fake alien, but it was a pig. Poor thing, frightened to death.”

She stared at him. “That's impossible.”

“Nope,” the Doctor said, grinning. He looked around the hub, and Jack knew it was only a matter of time before it came. “Interesting place you've got here, Jack. Exactly what is it you think you're doing?”

“Welcome to Torchwood Three, Doctor,” Jack said. “This is my team. Well, part of it. Toshiko Sato and Owen Harper.”

“Torchwood?” Rose asked. “Why does that name sound familiar?”

“I believe it has come up before,” the Doctor said. “Almost like Bad Wolf in a way. Now where was it I heard it before? Saw it, too. If I could just pinpoint the references—”

“Canary Wharf,” Alec said, voice cold and eyes on Jack with all the fury of the Oncoming Storm. “You son of a—”

“And on that note, Doctor, I need to borrow your son,” Jack said, taking hold of Alec, who tried to shove him off. “Ellie, have Tosh get you what you need on that husband of yours, and Rose, make sure Owen shows you the pterodactyl. I'll just be a minute.”

He held onto the Time demi-Lord as the lift brought them back up to the Plass. Alec yanked himself out of Jack's grip, stumbling away from the monument. Jack added a lock code onto the lift, knowing that the Doctor or even Tosh could override it if they wanted. Then he turned back to the angry man next to him.

“You and I need to talk.”

“Talk? As if there is anything you can say to me to justify being a part of Torchwood,” Alec snapped. “I saw what they did. They let Cybermen loose on the world. Daleks. I saw that. I lived it. Twice. And you, pretending to be a friend, acting like you're helping—”

“Listen to me,” Jack said, holding up his hands. “This Torchwood is different. I changed it after Canary Wharf. I did it to help the Doctor. And the planet. I wasn't involved in what happened there—they kept me in the dark, or I would have stopped it. I swear I _would_ have. Don't you understand? Rose and the Doctor—I care about them.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

“Yes,” Jack said. “Look, I know you changed something at Canary Wharf, something that stabilized your timeline. Your daughter's timeline. At least for now, but you may still end up paying the price for it. I'm not sure how long my own memories will hold. I think for the others time has already changed. They're not even aware that it has. We know you left to change time, but none of us know how. Not even your daughter.”

Alec folded his arms over his chest. “That doesn't change anything. You lied. You got us here, and who knows what you're actually planning on doing—”

“What the Doctor can't do. Won't do. Look, he's a good person. Better than the rest of us, and we need him to be. So we don't let him do the dirty work,” Jack said. “He convinced everyone he could, but he doesn't. Well, he did with the Family of Blood, but that was—it wasn't him. He wasn't the same after he lost Rose. I could tell, even if I hadn't seen him since before he regenerated.”

Jack caught something in the other man's expression—which should have been blank but did just what his father's did and gave away too much in the eyes—that made him pause.

“Rose. You saved Rose.”

“What is the point of any of this? We didn't need to come to Cardiff to prove Joe Miller's guilt. This is five years too late to stop it or gather much in the way of forensics. So, what, you get to admit your guilt now when you know he has to basically forgive you and forget? The hell with that,” Alec said, grabbing for Jack's wrist and starting to to work on the band.

“Do you know anything about the Master?”

“A bit. He's my father's oldest friend and rival,” Alec answered. “Quit trying to distract me.”

“He's alive.”

Alec stopped, looking up at Jack. “No. All the Time Lords are dead.”

“Not him. He used that arch and turned himself human,” Jack said. He sighed. “I wasn't going to say anything, but I don't know how much you've changed things, and you deserve to know what might happen.”

Alec let go of his arm, backing away from him. “What is this? What did you do to them? You set a bloody trap, didn't you? Damn you.”

* * *

“What was that?” Ellie demanded, looking at the lift that had just disappeared with Jack and Hardy. The Doctor frowned. Daisy moved closer to her grandmother, and Sarah Jane wrapped an arm around her, looking at the others in concern and suspicion.

“Wanker,” Owen said. “Disappears without warning for weeks and then shows back up with all of you without so much as a word.”

“Sounds a bit familiar, yeah?” Rose asked, and the Doctor gave her a look. “Oh, come on. My mum thought I'd been murdered I was gone so long. And all because you're a lousy driver. Sorry, Daisy, but I'd be careful about taking those driving lessons from him.”

“Oi,” the Doctor said. “Don't listen to her, Daisy. She's maligning my honor. And technically, that was my last face, and my driving has improved—”

“I very much doubt that,” Sarah Jane said. “He left me in Aberdeen once. It was supposed to be Croyden. And if he's still missing his mark by a year, well, I'd say that he hasn't improved much at all.”

“Who are you people?” Owen demanded, though Ellie thought that this wasn't at all unusual for the Doctor. He seemed to go off on tangents all the time.

“I'm Ellie Miller. Detective Sergeant Miller,” she corrected herself. “The Doctor already introduced himself, but that's Sarah Jane Smith. Rose—”

“Tyler,” she finished. “Sorry. Never did get properly introduced, did we?”

“No,” Ellie agreed. “Not that—We're supposed to be getting information on that boy that Joe killed. I don't know if Jack meant for us to use the ghost machine he mentioned or not. Actually, I'm—Doctor, should we be worried about Hardy?”

The Doctor looked back from the lift. “Well, now, that's a bit difficult to say. I'm still not sure exactly what Torchwood does and why I know that name—”

“I heard it on the gamestation,” Rose said. “Though I don't remember what that question was. I was too busy worrying about being the weakest link. And there was somewhere else, something else, but I can't remember what it was.”

“Yes, but it seems to have followed us almost like Bad Wolf did. Though what concerns me is how Alec reacted to that name,” the Doctor said, crossing over to the nearest computer. He started typing, pulling up a few windows, much to the Asian woman's surprise. The screens stopped, and he pointed his sonic screwdriver at it, causing all sorts of information to pop up on the screen. “Well, now. It would seem my reputation proceeds me.”

“What?” Ellie asked, frowning. “What are you on about now?”

“Oh, nothing,” the Doctor said. “It's just that it would seem that Torchwood was founded to oppose me. The Doctor. I'm their number one enemy.”

The two on the other side of the room frowned. “What?”

“Didn't know about that part of the charter, did you? Interesting. Very interesting. Exactly what has Jack told you? No, don't tell me. I don't want to know.”

“Wait,” Daisy said. “If Torchwood is your enemy, does that mean my dad's in danger?”

He grimaced. “Well, now, that's a good question. Tell me, Mr. Harper—”

“Dr. Harper,” Owen corrected, annoyed.

“What exactly is it you do here?”

“We find and catalog alien technology and contain alien threats,” Toshiko answered. “Most of them come from the rift, which we monitor from here. I do most of that from my station. I don't understand. You came with Jack. Don't you know about us?”

“No,” the Doctor said. “That's the thing about me. Sometimes I meet people before I know them. Tricky business, traveling in time.”

“Great. Jack's new boyfriend is insane.”

“Jack is just a friend,” the Doctor said. “I think. And no, I am not insane. Nine hundred year old alien, me. Just look younger than you expect. Product of my genes, and I have _very_ good genes. Don't I, Daisy?”

She smiled. “I kind of think so, yeah.”

Ellie rolled her eyes. “You would say that. Doctor, do you actually trust Jack? Or did we come here for nothing? Because if we came here for nothing, I'm going to hurt you and your knob of a son. Sorry, Daisy.”

The girl just smiled back.

“Owen, Tosh, I'm back,” another voice called. Ellie tensed. That voice was familiar. “I survived, though it was close. I swear, someone ought to retcon me the next time I say I'm going over the border.”

“Gwen,” Tosh said, sounding nervous. “Jack... Jack brought some friends by.”

“Jack's back?” the other woman asked, coming into view and confirming Ellie's fears. “Since when?”

“Claire?” Ellie asked, frowning. “Claire, what the hell are you doing here?”


	26. Time for Cross-Purposes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor puzzles out how Gwen and Claire might connect. Jack and Hardy continue their conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, on a happier note, I reacquired (borrowed from the library) a copy of season one, which is nice because I can refresh my memory a lot.
> 
> On another note, I realize they didn't necessarily want to explain the same actress being cast in a different role, but I find the official explanation for the Gwen/Gwenyth thing kind of... lame. There's this other theory I like about Gwen/Gwenyth being a part of the rift. It was even in fic once, long ago.
> 
> That's not necessarily what's going on here, but I still like it better than the one Davies gave.

* * *

_“I should hate you. Everyone should. These choices you think you can make... They're not your right. You don't know better. None of us asked for this.”_

_“Would you have asked for something different?”_

_That got a snort. “What kind of a question is that? Of course I would have.”_

* * *

“Claire?” Rose asked, frowning as she took in the newcomer. Ellie wasn't the only one who thought she looked familiar. Rose swore she knew her, though back when she did, the other woman had been in a big skirt with curly hair. “Who the hell is Claire? That's... Doctor, that's Gwenyth, isn't it?”

“Gwen,” the other woman said. “It's just Gwen. No Gwenyth.”

“You know her,” Owen said. “You know Gwen.”

“No, we knew Gwenyth,” the Doctor corrected. Rose looked at him, swallowing. She did remember how that ended, how the Gelth had tricked them, and how Gwenyth had died to save them all. She still wished there had been another way or that she'd been able to stop Gwenyth from opening the rift for them in the first place. “And you look exactly like her. Like a dead woman.”

“No, she looks like a _live_ woman,” Ellie said. “Claire Ripley. She's been held for trial as accomplice to murder.”

“Wow, Gwen,” Owen said, sounding almost amused. “You do get around.”

“Strictly speaking, she didn't,” the Doctor said, shaking his head. “As I said, Gwenyth died. Point of fact, she died in 1869. Here, in Cardiff, near the Rift. Helping Charles Dickens, as it happens. Saving our lives and the world. And yet—”

“You really are barmy.”

“He's a time traveler, you knob,” Ellie muttered, rubbing her head. “Doctor, how is she in two places at once? Or—damn it, where are we? _When_ are we?”

“2007,” Daisy answered. “Wait, how do I know that? _Why_ do I know that? And how is that possible? Because it was 2015 when we left.”

“I'd say you were crazy,” Toshiko began, “but I was in 1941 not that long ago. I can't.”

“That was the rift,” Owen said. “There's no telling what will come out of it.”

Rose knew there was a story behind that—plenty of them—but they really couldn't afford to get distracted again. They had to get rid of that Joe Miller guy, and she knew that meant that the Doctor had to give up his son when Joe was gone, but that had to happen, or his son wouldn't exist in the first place.

Oh, that made her head hurt a little.

“Doctor, is it possible that woman _becomes_ Claire in the future?” Ellie asked, still frowning at Gwen.

“Then we can stop her, right?” Daisy asked. “We can keep her from killing Pippa.”

“Lee killed Pippa. Claire just helped him cover it up,” Ellie corrected, though everyone was still staring at them in surprise and a bit of horror. “Possibly. I'm not sure how much of that rohypnol she actually gave Pippa.”

“She's _not_ innocent,” Daisy insisted. “We should stop her. That case almost killed my dad, and I'm not just talking about his heart condition. He almost drowned that day, getting her out of the water.”

“Who told you about that?” Sarah Jane asked. “He kept insisting you weren't to know.”

Daisy ran her hands over her arms. “I... It was one of those things with us. One of those... _weird_ things. I... I _felt_ it.”

The Doctor grimaced. Sarah Jane pulled her close again, trying to soothe her.

“Certain events can't be changed,” the Doctor told her. “Fixed points. Nothing can change them. I'm afraid if Pippa doesn't die, then you and I never meet—more importantly, though, I don't meet your father, and had I not intervened... Well, best not think about that.”

“Doctor, how is it that Gwen looks exactly like Gwenyth _and_ this Claire Ripley woman?” Rose asked. “We know Gwenyth died without having kids. She was embarrassed to talk about noticing boys. And she was an only child, right? So how does Gwen look so much like her? I mean, that gap in her teeth, even.”

“Spatial genetic multiplicity _could_ mean an echo and repetition of physical traits across a time rift, I suppose,” he answered, frowning. Rose didn't think he liked that explanation much. She didn't, either. It sounded more like a made up excuse than anything. She could think of dozens of other reasons why it would happen that were much better. “Though considering that it's not just one but possibly two repetitions at this exact time—or should be—this Claire woman—”

“Moved from Cardiff,” Ellie answered. “Or so she said. Claire lied about a lot of things. You thought Joe was an alien—could she be one? Maybe she... I dunno, copied Gwen over there and went off to marry Lee? Is that possible? Oh, my god, listen to me.”

“I think it's possible,” Rose said. “I think it's more likely than genes copying across the rift.”

“So... if there's an alien out there that looks like Gwen, what are we going to do about it?” Owen asked, frowning.

“Nothing.”

* * *

“This is not a trap.”

“You're Torchwood,” Hardy said, shaking his head. “Why should I believe anything you say? You do know why Torchwood was founded, don't you? You had to have known. You call yourself his friend, but you work for his enemy.”

“I don't,” Jack insisted. “Look, I had an uneasy truce with Torchwood for years, but by the time Canary Wharf happened, Torchwod Three, my Torchwood, was basically independent. We didn't interact with the London branch much, and Yvonne didn't tell me anything. My team monitors the rift. We contain alien threats.”

“And use their technology which you shouldn't have—”

“Says the man who built a supercomputer at twelve.”

Hardy grunted. “She should never have told any of you about that.”

“She does like to brag just a bit,” Jack said with a grin, enjoying Hardy's discomfort. “She's a very proud mama. Though... she isn't your mother.”

“Don't,” Hardy warned. He didn't want to think about that. He still didn't know how he felt about his true parentage, and he didn't even know what half of it was. He wasn't going to think about that now. He had other priorities. “The computer was a mistake. I was a child.”

“And, what, that's an excuse? Haven't you ever arrested a child for a crime before?”

“I've arrested a child for murder before,” Hardy answered. He didn't want to think about that, either. None of those cases were worth remembering. The only thing that made them worth anything was stopping bent children from doing worse in the future. That, and going home to find Daisy there, so good and loving and wonderful.

“Of course you have.”

“I made the computer because as a child I saw no reason not to improve my mother's life or my own by having it,” Hardy said. “Later, yes, I understood what it meant and the damage it could do to Earth's development. That's not something I'd do now.”

“Yeah. You completely turned your back on all of that,” Jack said. “Why would you do that? Choose to live as a human when you are so much more than that?”

“Are you the pot or the bloody kettle?”

Jack laughed. “I'm neither. I'm Torchwood, remember? I am doing my part to help humans deal with aliens and advanced technology.”

“Is that what you call it?”

“I keep trying to tell you—it's not a trap,” Jack said. “This is about the Doctor. I care about him. I know you may find that hard to believe—”

“When you flirt with everything that moves?” Hardy asked. “Not a bit.”

“Look, I get you don't trust me. You're worse than your father was post Time War. At least Rose opened him up a little. I don't know that he would have accepted you if not for her—”

“I don't care. Stop wittering at me. You are wasting our time.”

“That's funny.”

“No. It isn't.”

Jack smiled. “You really didn't get your father's sense of humor, did you?”

“You're assuming he had one,” Hardy countered. “You think because you knew two of his regenerations that you know him? You don't. Now I am going back to my daughter—”

“That is what I'm trying to tell you,” Jack said. “Your daughter is in danger.”

* * *

“What do you mean, nothing?” Gwen demanded. “Some alien has my face, and you think I'm just going to stand here and accept that? No. We are going after that thing, and we are stopping it.”

“No, you're not,” the Doctor said. Jack's team made ready to protest, but he held up a hand. They weren't. He didn't trust the humans to deal with this, even if they were trained by Jack. Most of them were strangers. Oh, not Ms. Sato, but that didn't mean he trusted her, either. “You're not. Not only are you ill-equipped and in way over your head—humans, always blundering in—you can't. You'd be disrupting thousands of timelines.”

“What?”

“Wankers,” Ellie muttered, getting a glare from all three of them. The Doctor wondered what it would be like traveling with a companion who was as rude as he was, and he figured it was a bad idea, even if bringing her along would seem a good way to keep his son around.

“What Ellie is saying, albeit it a little colorfully, is that we were eight years in the future when we left. Claire Ripley is in prison eight years in the future,” Rose said. “You can't travel in time, and even if you did, what are you gonna do? Waltz in there looking exactly like a condemned woman?”

“She hasn't been tried yet,” Ellie said, grimacing. “Knowing her, she won't plead guilty. Still, you can't just go in there and get her.”

“We're Torchwood.”

“Maybe, but that doesn't change the fact that you'd be altering timelines going after her,” the Doctor told them. They could be whoever they pleased—and he had to admit, he didn't care for that attitude of theirs—but he wouldn't even let UNIT deal with this woman. In part, that was because UNIT knew far more about him than he liked, and he had to keep his son a secret. Even from himself. “Well, if you go now or stopped her from going to Cardiff when she _does_ go—not sure when that is—but even in the future, what would you do? Lock it up? You've got no way of sending it back. I'm not even sure you could properly identify its species. And if it is a shapeshifter, it may already be preparing to escape.”

“Is it?” Ellie asked. “It's just... she could have done it. If she could shift and be anyone, then why didn't she? Why not fake being Lisa so no one would suspect a thing? Even if Ricky knew she was dead, he'd never have said anything. They wouldn't have had to kill Pippa. And even if they did do it, why not just run with Lee when the trial fell apart? He went to France. She could have met him any time, but she didn't. She let Hardy use her as bait to bring Lee out of hiding.”

The Doctor turned to her with a frown. “She did what?”

“Claire Ripley came home to find her neighbor had murdered his niece after her husband had sex with her. That would be Lisa,” Daisy explained. “Lisa was babysitting Pippa, and she overheard the fight. Claire drugged Pippa, Lee killed her, they used her death as leverage over Ricky, and then Claire stole the evidence out of Mum's car when she was shagging Dave. The trial fell apart, Lee left the country, and everyone blamed my dad.”

Ellie frowned. “You got all that from the papers?”

“No. I read Mum's case files.”

“It's in the genes,” the Doctor said, looking at his granddaughter with pride. She was good, she was, and a lot like her father. And even her mother, though he thought he didn't care much for that woman. Biased, he supposed. He'd never met her, but between Sarah Jane and Alec and even Daisy—no, the Doctor didn't think he liked Tess. “Wait. Alec used her as... a lure?”

“Yeah. The entire time he was in Broadchurch, he was hiding her,” Ellie answered. “Supposedly she was afraid of Lee, but I'm not sure I ever believed that. Why does that matter?”

“Well...” The Doctor grimaced. “Good news and bad news, I think. Good news, I don't think that Claire Ripley is a shapeshifter.”

“So, she's not an alien?”

“Oh, no, that's the bad news. She's definitely an alien.”

* * *

“If you're threatening my daughter, you will regret it.”

Jack shook his head. Damn, Alec was stubborn. Jack knew where he got it from, but this was ridiculous. He didn't have much time, and he shouldn't be breaking the rules like this, but he couldn't _not_ say anything. Daisy was too bright a child to have to face the Master, and if he did show up, it would be when she was even younger. The idea of that sick bastard having access to the Doctor's granddaughter at that age was horrifying.

“I'm not. I swear to you, I'm not,” Jack said. “Look, you said you knew a bit about the Master. That's enough to know what he's capable of, isn't it? You said rival. You know he's a sociopath.”

Alec sighed. “What I know of him I got from that... that moment when my father was in my head, and that... bloody hell.”

“Ooh, kinky,” Jack said. “Shame I never got him in my head or—”

“Shut it. Now.”

“Sorry.” Jack grinned. “Easily distracted, me.”

“I noticed.”

“Look, you can keep getting grumpier and grumpier with me, but that's not going to help. You know and I know that I shouldn't tell you anything about the future. And it's entirely possible that none of what I know from Canary Wharf on will happen because you changed that already, but if it does...” Jack swallowed. “The Master spent a year killing me over and over again. In more ways than you could possibly imagine. More than I thought possible. I thought I'd already died every way a person could die, but he found more ways to kill me. Now imagine someone who can do that having your daughter.”

Alec frowned. “You expect me to believe that the Master, a Time Lord who has been out of regenerations more than once, who tried to steal my father's regenerations, and who should be dead in the Time War will get a hold of my daughter and torture her like he supposedly did a freak like you?”

“Hey,” Jack said, not faking the hurt that word caused, especially after the Year that Never Was. “I am not making this up. The Master ran and hid during the Time War. He turned himself human. And then he created a paradox and—”

“Bollocks.”

“You can't afford to ignore what I'm saying,” Jack insisted. “If for any reason, the Master does get found, if he turns himself back in to a Time Lord and comes to Earth, you and your daughter—he would love to get his hands on you. You don't want to know what it was like.”

“No, I don't, but I also don't trust you,” Alec muttered. “Now, I am going to get my daughter, and you are going to heed my very strong advice and stay out of my way.”

“I locked the lift. There's more we should talk about. Things that you are probably the only one who can change,” Jack said. He grimaced. He couldn't expect the Doctor's son to fix everything, but he knew that the Doctor was already a part of certain events, ones he couldn't change. “You did change Canary Wharf. Rose didn't get trapped in a parallel world, did she?”

Alec glared at him. “We are not discussing what I did. And I don't know why time hasn't normalized for you yet—”

“Because I'm wrong?”

“Who bloody cares? The whole point of this trip was to get rid of Joe Miller—something that is far overdue—and as soon as that was done, we all go back to our lives. That's it. That's all anyone gets,” Alec said. “Now unlock that lift.”

“What if you regenerate?”

“Again, who bloody cares?”

“It means the Master could kill you more than once. That he could possibly do the same to Daisy,” Jack insisted. “It means I should tell you everything so that it stops that year from ever happening. I can't change it. I'm a part of it. You're not. In that alternate timeline—”

“I didn't exist.”

“You don't know that.”

“I think we both do,” Alec said. “And not because he 'lost' me in time but because whatever circumstances led to my birth, they never happened in your timeline.”

Jack sighed. “While I'd love to assume you've already fixed that, you don't know that you have. I still remember that horrible year. And I don't want that to be your future.”

“My past, you mean.”

“I don't—”

“Oh, give me that bloody thing,” Alec said, pulling on Jack's arm and fiddling with the armband. “What is the code?”

“This isn't over,” Jack said, and Alec gave him a look. “And you probably shouldn't mess with that thing again. Who knows what it might do? What if it takes off again?”

“What?” Alec asked. “Are you saying... you didn't come to the future on purpose?”

“I thought I said that.”

“Wanker. Didn't you use the vortex manipulator on purpose?”

“Actually, no.”


	27. Time for Another Wrinkle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor explains his theory about Gwen/Claire. Hardy, meanwhile, has other problems.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... perhaps I should apologize? This may be a tad confusing. And I know it seems like it's off on a tangent, but there are certain things that I had to address in this story, and since I made some changes, well, others had to happen, too. 
> 
> I like to think I have some method to my madness (ha) but I probably don't.
> 
> Or maybe the apology is for the other fic that I tried to do yesterday and kind of failed at that probably should have waited but I have issues about giving spoilers to my own stories, and that would have been one like all my spin off ideas that I really want to write.

* * *

_“Who are you to decide for everyone?”_

_“I'm not.”_

_“You say you're not, but you are. You've made this choice, and it's your choice, no one else's, no one even gets consulted, and now that it's all done and made, you won't even acknowledge that other people will be affected. Changed. Their lives aren't their own, and they don't even know it.”_

_“I take it you're angry, then?”_

* * *

“So... based on a conversation of a few minutes, you know this woman's an alien. How, exactly?” Owen asked, his tone a bit snide. He folded his arms over his chest. “Go on. Enlighten us. I'd really like to know how you can be sure.”

“Oh, I'm not,” the Doctor admitted. “Just... reasonably certain. And when I say reasonably, I mean within a five percent margin of error. Yup, ninety-five percent chance she's alien. What's more, there's an eighty-nine percent chance she's the sort of alien I think she is. Mind you, there's an awful lot of conflicting reports, so species being what they are, there are actually several that fit what I think has happened here, but if I'm right, she's a Flyboln.”

“You're making that up.”

“I'm not. The Flyboln come from Fladus. Specifically, the thirty-ninth planet in the system. It's a small place, off-limits to travelers, which really should be more advertised. Never know the trouble you'll cause if you go stumbling about onto a planet whose inhabitants are copycats. Literally, almost, except... they don't start as cats. Fortunate thing, that. Might have a bunch of them running about in wimples and that would be a disaster,” the Doctor said. “No, the Flyboln have this unfortunate and very dangerous habit of... imprinting, as it were. They take the genetic template of another species and believe that's what they are. Poof, just like that, a ball of gas is a human and oops, not a thing to do about it.”

“Just like that?” Owen asked, still not believing him. Not that Ellie could blame him since she was having a hard time with it—and she knew Claire existed. She'd seen her. “Yeah, right.”

“No, it happens,” the Doctor insisted. “They were created for that purpose.”

“A slave race?” Rose asked, frowning. “What, like the Ood? Does that mean that the Ood were bred, too?”

“I don't know. Suppose it's possible,” the Doctor answered, troubled.

“I didn't think,” Rose said, sounding just as upset as he was. “I mean, I tried, a bit, at first, to see if they felt trapped, to get them to want more, but it... I didn't do much of that, and then... they all died, Doctor.”

“Yes, and we should do something to set that right. We'll see about that after we've finished here. One crisis at a time—though, really, the way these things keep stacking here, it never seems to end,” the Doctor said, shaking his head. “Still have Joe Miller to deal with, and then there are other timelines to restore.”

“Why would anyone make an alien that took the form of something else?” Daisy asked, frowning. “What would be the point of that?” 

“The ultimate sleeper agent,” the Doctor proclaimed. “Need to turn the tide of a war? Simply insert and watch chaos unfold.”

Ellie put a hand to her head. “You've got to be joking. No, don't tell me you're not, just tell me that there isn't some alien race waiting to invade us using Claire because there isn't. She can't be one of those things. She was pregnant.”

“Eh, well... She was human at the time of conception, so...” the Doctor said, shrugging. Ellie was tempted to smack him. “Though, no, they can't invade as... well, the race that created them is gone. Finito. Kaput. Lost in the Time War.”

“And this alien came here in its gaseous form through the rift?” Sarah Jane asked, conflicted. She trusted the Doctor, but she didn't like this theory, that much was clear.

“I suspect so. It's even a point toward that theory of spatial genetic multiplicity, as it would seem that the Flyboln decided that was the human form to take,” the Doctor agreed. “So we have a bit of a conundrum, you see, as really Flyboln could and should be harmless.”

“Only this one supposedly murdered someone.”

The Doctor nodded. “Yes, though if you want to see it as a sign of alien menace, you'd be mistaken. Flyboln are only dangerous when their perception of themselves is disrupted—or when they lose their mate.”

That got a snort from Owen. “Gaseous clouds have mates?”

“We had an alien gas that fed off sex, remember?” Gwen countered. She shook her head. “Are you saying—you're saying this alien who thought she was human killed a child... just like that? And she's still not dangerous until we tell her she's an alien?”

“No. And yes. A bit of both, in some ways, but still not—”

“And I thought your son was irritating,” Ellie muttered. “If Claire's an alien—and I'm not saying she is—she's already had it out with her 'mate.' She turned against Lee, brought us the pendant, and confessed.”

“Ooh, now that's bad. That's very bad. See, Flyboln seek out... companionship in whatever form they're in. Makes for a stronger imprint, better cover, but it also... well, it makes them real. They are, physically, the species they've taken on, but they need a mate to ground them. A Flyboln without a mate is a ticking time bomb, and when they go off... Well, let's just say it only usually took one on any given planet.”

“You still haven't said why you think this Claire woman is a Flyboln,” Owen said. “Proof. We'd like some proof, wouldn't we, Tosh?”

Toshiko grimaced, not liking being put on the spot like that. “Um... well, yes.”

The Doctor glanced at his granddaughter, hesitating. Ellie understood then, and it made her sick. Sick and angry. His people were the ones who created the Flyboln. The Time Lords had done it.

“Bollocks,” Ellie swore. She didn't think that Daisy needed to know about that—she knew she still had long years ahead with Tom, who would probably always wonder if he'd become like his father or if his father would have one day turned on him as he had Danny. Still, it wasn't like she wanted to cover it up, either.

“About sums it up, actually,” the Doctor agreed. “So... we had better finish this business with Joe and get ourselves back to the future to fix the other crisis.”

“Fine,” Ellie said. “I'll be glad to be rid of him.”

“I think we all will,” Sarah Jane said. She didn't look all that relieved, though. “Doctor, I know we established that you do, in fact, trust Jack, but... he has been gone for quite some time and so has Alec.”

“Yes, he has. Where the hell are they?” Ellie asked, not liking where her mind was going with this. Not that she thought Hardy was the type to give into all that innuendo—she didn't want to think about that—but the fact that he was gone still bothered her.

As if on cue, Jack came running into the room, out of breath. “Doctor, we have a problem.”

* * *

Martha hung up her phone, shaking her head at her family and wishing she wasn't in the middle of it—again. She hated that she always was, it drove her mental, but then they were her family and she loved them, even if her dad had kind of ruined everything with his affair and Annalise. Martha didn't hate her, but she didn't really like the woman, either.

She was Switzerland, though, and it was not the easiest position to be in, no matter what the issue was. Being practical had its downsides.

Out of nowhere, a man was in her face, long coat and brown suit, wild hair all about, and she stopped still.

“Like so,” he said, pulling off his tie and holding it up to her. “See?”

She stared after him as he walked away, shaking her head. London wasn't half full of nutters, and unfortunately, most of them were family.

She was about to go into the hospital when he stumbled into her path again, almost falling on top of her, wheezing for breath. She caught him, but he was too heavy to hold upright, so she helped him to the ground.

“You changed your suit,” she said, frowning. “Wait, you were clean shaven before and now you're not. Is this some kind of a prank?”

He seemed to glare at her. She grimaced, not just because she'd just been hit by the door. Others came close to them, full fledged doctors and nurses, and she was told to move out of the way. She stepped back, watching them put him on the gurney. 

“Do you know him? What happened?”

Martha shook her head. “He just collapsed. I didn't even have a chance to examine him.”

She was dismissed after that. A nurse put an oxygen mask over his face, and he tried to pull it off, but they moved him inside, leaving Martha standing there alone. With a sigh, she moved off on her own, going in at a normal pace and heading into the locker room to put her jacket away and grab her lab coat.

She put it on, grabbed her stethoscope, and started to shut her locker. It shocked her, and she found herself frowning again, though her mind was back on the man she'd met. How had he done that? An actor? It had to be a performance, right? He was doing some kind of show or something, though he hadn't looked well at the end.

She was so preoccupied she made a fool of herself during rounds, though at least she wasn't the only one to do so. Do better with the next one, she told herself, and she would have, too, if Stoker hadn't pulled back the curtain to show the same man again.

“Now then, Mister Smith, a very good morning to you. How are you today?”

“Oh, not so bad. Still a bit, you know, blah,” he said, sticking his tongue out. He was kind of cute when he did that, she thought, though she didn't understand how he was here already when she'd just seen him collapsed downstairs.

And his scruff was gone again.

“John Smith, admitted yesterday with severe abdominal pains,” Stoker said, and she frowned. How did that become that thing downstairs? He couldn't breathe there, but he was just in for stomach pain? “Jones, why don't you see what you can find? Amaze me.”

She nodded, walking around the bed. “That wasn't very clever, running around outside, was it?”

He frowned at her. “Sorry?”

“On Chancellor Street this morning?” Martha prompted. “You came up to me and took your tie off. Then you collapsed in front of the hospital doors.”

“Nope. Not me. Must be mistaken. I was here in bed. Ask the nurses.”

“Well, that's weird, cause it looked like you,” she told him. “Twice, even. Are you playing some sort of trick or... Have you got a brother?”

He shook his head. “No, not anymore. Just me.”

“As time passes and I grow ever more infirm and weary, Miss Jones,” Stoker said, impatient.

“Sorry. Right,” Martha said, holding the stethoscope to his chest. Something about it was weird, so she checked the other side—two heartbeats? Oh, this was a prank. He winked at her, and she tried not to sigh.

“I weep for future generations. Are you having trouble locating the heart, Miss Jones?”

She didn't want to let him win, so she stood back up and said, “Er, I don't know. Stomach cramps?”

“That is a symptom, not a diagnosis. And you rather failed basic techniques by not consulting first with the patient's chart,” Stoker chided, picking up the chart from the foot of the bed. It shocked him, and he dropped it on the patient's feet.”

“That happened to me this morning,” Martha told him, thinking of her locker.

“I had the same thing on the door handle,” Morgenstern said.

“And me, on the lift,” Swales added.

“That's only to be expected. There's a thunderstorm moving in and lightning is a form of static electricity, as was first proven by...” Stoker paused, apparently expecting them to know the answer. “Anyone?”

The patient was the only one to answer. “Benjamin Franklin.”

“Correct.”

“My mate, Ben,” Smith went on, sounding like he was remembering aloud. “That was a day and a half. I got rope burns off that kite, and then I got soaked.”

“Quite,” Stoker said, not amused.

“And then I got electrocuted.”

“Moving on,” Stoker said, leading them away from Smith's bed. Martha saw him pull a nurse over to the side. “I think perhaps a visit from psychiatric.”

Martha considered telling him it was just a prank, but since when did he listen to her?

* * *

Groaning, Hardy dragged the mask off his face, pulling himself out of the hospital bed. Damn, that hurt. Again. He would have said that the operation the Doctor put him through had failed, but he felt fine again now. He wanted to blame the vortex manipulator instead, since both of the times his hearts seemed to fail had happened after using that thing. The last time he'd dismissed it as a panic attack, and he hadn't had any since, but now that he'd traveled in time again, his hearts were struggling.

He didn't know how much trouble he would have been if the staff hadn't gotten distracted. He didn't have time to think about that, not when he could see Earth from the bloody window. He grimaced, looking down. When the hell did they have time to undress him?

Grumbling, he gathered up his suit and yanked off his gown, pulling on his shirt and then his trousers. He shoved his tie in his pocket and put on his jacket as he routed around for his socks and shoes. Bloody ridiculous. And where was his coat?

If he lost that, he was going to be very annoyed. It figured he'd lose it, since he'd bought that to replace the one he'd ruined getting Pippa out of the water. Always the coat in a damned crisis. He was fortunate he hadn't lost it during the Latimer case.

Then again, knowing Miller, she'd probably have bought him a new one because she was that sort of a person. Kind, even when she was being constantly irked.

Oh, bloody hell. Wherever this place was, he wasn't leaving until he found the vortex manipulator.

He heard screaming and poked his head into the corridor. Ahead of him, a group had formed, clustered about, and towering over them, he could see two of what appeared to be rhinoceroses. He frowned. Either the drugs they'd given him were making him hallucinate, or he was seeing aliens.

Great.

The rhinos started scanning everyone in the hallway. “Confirm, human.”

“Damn it,” he muttered. They didn't seem to care about anyone who came up human, but he was only half. He couldn't be sure if the ring his father had given him would be enough for that scan. That meant running, and he wasn't so sure that his hearts would be up for that, not after the vortex manipulator.

He didn't have a choice. The rhinos were headed toward him, and he had to get out of here. He turned to the right and ran up the stairs, not stopping until he had gone two flights up. He needed a computer, something that would allow him to look up where his stuff might be.

He headed for the first thing that looked like an office, but the voices made him stop in the doorway.

“She's gone,” a woman said, sounding dismayed. “She was here.”

“Drained him dry,” another voice said, one Hardy knew well now and wanted to curse even as he grudgingly acknowledged that he needed the other man. “Every last drop. I was right. She's a plasmavore.”

Bloody hell. Hardy hated them.

“What's she doing on Earth?”

“Hiding. On the run. Like Ronald Biggs in Rio de Janeiro,” the Doctor answered, stopping to pace and think. “What's she doing now? She's still not safe. The Judoon could execute us all. Come on.”

“Wait a minute,” the woman said, and Hardy watched her go back around the desk.

“So... Judoon. Interesting name for rhinoceros.”

The Doctor turned to look at him and frowned. “What? Who? What?”

“I knew it,” the woman said. “I _knew_ you weren't alone. All that act about personal questions and the like. You had a partner. How else could you have pulled it off? 'Cause you were in the street in one suit and clean face, then again in a different suit with scruff. And then you collapsed but were up in bed and fine.”

“I'm sorry,” the Doctor said, shaking his head at the woman and turning back to Hardy. “Do I... know you? I mean, I should if you're me, but there's this really strange sensation to you that doesn't feel like meeting one of my alternate selves.”

“Again? Bloody hell,” Hardy muttered, his head starting to ache. “No. Not you. When are you this time? Have you already done Canary Wharf?”

“Yes. Why?”

“I would be the reason you don't remember it.”

“No, he does. He said he was there,” the woman insisted, and Hardy almost groaned. Great. He'd found yet another alternate timeline, had he? What kind of bloody nightmare was this?

“Then Rose is... gone?”

“Oh,” the Doctor said. “No. No, she's not. She's just with her family, getting them settled and all. Big adjustment coming back from the dead, and well... I think it's going to take a bit for ol' Petey Boy to go from being head of Pete's World to... nothing. Not that I haven't set them on their way. They've got start up funds and the perfect business manager—Donna Noble, you'd like her, she's brilliant—to get them going.”

“Doctor,” the woman said, “what is going on?”

“Um... well, to be perfectly honest, I'm not entirely sure. See, I kind of had to forget part of Canary Wharf. Timelines, I said, when people asked me,” the Doctor said, shrugging. “I think he's the reason, though, Martha. Oh, yes, this is Martha Jones. And this is...”

“Detective Inspector—” Hardy stopped himself. He didn't know what year it was, and he couldn't let her find him again if she survived the rhinos. “Never mind that. You have anything that can find advanced technology?”

“Is that how you're going to find that woman? That alien?”

“Plasmavores are typically scavengers,” Hardy said. “They'd find something here to use.”

“He's right,” the Doctor agreed. “She would. Which means something like—oh. She's as clever as me. Almost.”

Hardy heard a crash, and people screamed. He looked back behind him, and the Doctor rushed out to see, the woman right behind him.

“Find the non-human,” the rhino ordered. “Execute.”

“Martha, stay here,” the Doctor said. “I need time. You've got to hold them up.”

“How do I do that?” she asked, frowning.

Hardy shook his head. “I'll do it. You go.”

“But if you're an alien like him, then you'll be found and killed,” Martha protested. “You can't do that. That's not right. He's got another way, and it'll be—”

“I'm half-human,” Hardy said, and the Doctor frowned. “Don't bloody ask—just _go._ Now. Stop that thing before it kills all of us.”

“This isn't finished,” the Doctor said, wagging a finger at him before he took off running. Hardy rolled his eyes.

“Is it always like this for you?” Martha asked, and Hardy looked over at her, snorting. “Well, how should I know? I went into work, and I ended up on the moon. And he's an alien, and you're an alien but only half-alien and—wait. Does that mean you have the same father?”

“No,” Hardy answered, not bothering to explain that the Doctor was his father. She'd never believe him anyway.

The rhino approached, scanning Martha first. “Human. Confirmed.”

Hardy tensed as the scanner faced him. “Human. Non-human. Unregistered hybrid. Execute.”


	28. Time for Partial Resolution

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hardy's absence causes more complications, even as the situation on the moon draws to a close.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had one of those days, two or so of them if not more, of doubt about things and if I knew what I was doing at all with the story. I mean, I did, but just because I thought I did doesn't mean it really works. I knew, at a certain point, that I'd have to make adjustments to the Doctor's timeline, and when I started thinking of all of them, I was scared, to be honest because it was a lot, and it's still overwhelming.
> 
> I do hope, though, that this is a bit of a better path for everyone. I'll admit that I'm not Martha's biggest fan, but I wanted to do justice to her, not taking away any of what she did even though I was adding Hardy to the mix there. I'm hoping the little change makes things a bit kinder for her in the long run.

* * *

_“It's almost funny. People say complicated. They don't know the half of it.”_

_“You say that like it's a bad thing.”_

_A snort. “Exactly what about any of this was good?”_

* * *

“What do you mean, you _lost my son?”_

Again with the Doctor sounding very much like the Oncoming Storm. And looking like it. While it was sexy as hell, Jack couldn't appreciate it like he wanted to, not when he had somehow managed to do just what the Doctor said—he'd lost his son. And the vortex manipulator.

“It was over so fast—we'd been talking about what brought me to the future—the vortex manipulator—and I explained how I hadn't actually meant to leave—I was trying to go down the same lift I just showed you when... to the future I went,” Jack explained, getting looks and glares from everyone in the room. He turned to his team. “Tosh, Owen, Gwen, I swear to you, I was on my way back. I know I took off without warning, but I'd been waiting over a hundred years for the Doctor to show up, and I needed to see him. I understood in the end—I belong here, but I had to go to know that. I'm sorry. What can I say? I'm—”

“A complete tosser,” Gwen said. Owen nodded in agreement, and Tosh grimaced, agreeing but too sweet to admit it.

“Okay, fine, I deserved that,” Jack said. “I think. Still, you know that I care about all of you. And I'm back now, to stay.”

“Yeah, right until you leave with him to fight the alien wearing my face, right?” Gwen asked, arms folded over her chest. “Say in five minutes?”

“Well, no, I—What's this about an alien wearing Gwen's face?”

“Possible spatial genetic multiplicity,” the Doctor said. “And a Flyboln.”

Jack stared at him. “Tell me you're kidding. One of them? Here? I thought they were extinct.”

“No, but as good as,” the Doctor said. “I hid the planet after the War, never wanted them used again. Still, a rift in space and time—”

“Is a rift in space and time,” Jack said. “Damn it.”

“Jack, you don't honestly believe this guy, do you?” Owen asked. “He's insane. Making all of this up. That's all he's doing. He's got everyone thinking he's an expert—”

“He _is_ an expert. He is _the_ expert,” Jack said. “Owen, the Doctor is a Time Lord. His species is ancient, more ancient than you can comprehend. They were myths, legends where I came from. We were in _awe_ of them—”

“Oh, spare us your school boy crush,” Owen muttered.

“Grumpy. It always suits you, Owen,” Jack told him, “but we really don't have time for this.”

“No, we bloody well do _not_ have time,” Ellie said, crossing over to him. “What the hell did you do to Hardy? Answer me, now. Or I will kick you right in the balls.”

“Well, now, that's a hell of a way to—”

“I'll do it, too,” Daisy said. “Because... Dad and I, we have this... connection. If I can't feel him, something bad happened to him. I know. I always know when it does. Mum says I can't, but I can. Every time something happened, I _knew.”_

“It comes from being part Time Lord,” the Doctor told her with mixture of pity and pride. “You and your father share a bond. It's untrained and definitely unstable, but it exists. One of the strongest natural ones I know, which says something because I saw them between full blooded Time Lords, and your father's only a demi-Lord.”

Daisy bit her lip. “That doesn't make it any better that he's gone.”

“No,” the Doctor agreed. “It doesn't. So, Jack, you have some explaining to do. We could start with why you dragged my son out of here—no, no, we can't. We absolutely cannot because I need to know where my son is. You have to tell me. Now.”

“I can't,” Jack said, grimacing. “I know—not what you want to hear, but it's true. I wasn't expecting to take that trip to the future, and I wasn't expecting it to go off again a second time. I could blame it on whatever your son was doing to undo my code. One second we're arguing over the lock, and the next, he's gone. So's the vortex manipulator, right off my wrist.”

The Doctor winced. “Jack—”

“Look, whatever you did when you disabled it must have... backfired. First it takes me to the future. Then it takes him... I don't even know when. Or where. Well, no, there was that trip he took on purpose, but that doesn't count. Unless he meant to do this, but I don't think he did.”

“I didn't do anything to your vortex manipulator,” the Doctor said, and Jack rolled his eyes. “No, it wasn't me, and if what we suspect of my son's activities is true, then my timeline has been altered. Whatever you knew is very likely gone.”

“Except I still remember it.”

“And you likely will until you make yourself forget it or someone does that for you,” the Doctor said. “You're a fixed point. You don't change. So as long as you remain constant, so does what you know. Your memory won't go away.”

“Yeah, that's not exactly—”

“How do we get my dad back?” Daisy asked, and the Doctor turned to her, that same apology on his face. Jack did not want to see it. Or hear it.

“We're going to have to trust your father to get himself back in one piece,” Jack said. “Tosh, we need everything you can find on Joe Miller. Ellie, give her what you know, help her narrow it down. Let's find that boy he killed, see if we can prove it or not.”

“That's it? That's what you expect us to do?”

“Yes,” Jack hissed. “Because we don't know where to start looking for Alec, and unless we really want to screw up the universe, we shouldn't go after him in the first place. He's already changed time at least once, leaving it vulnerable, and beyond that—well, I'm starting to think your son is a causal nexus, Doctor.”

* * *

“You can't do that,” the stranger said, sounding way too calm about all of this. Martha didn't know how he was, but he was like the Doctor, except where the Doctor was smiles and bouncing and running, this one was dark and quiet and still. “Execute me, I mean. You haven't got jurisdiction.”

“Um,” she began, “the Doctor said that they brought the hospital here because it was neutral ground and they could—”

“Shut it,” he hissed at her, facing the Judoon in front of him again. “You don't have jurisdiction. And believe me, I know a thing or two about jurisdiction—”

“That's right,” Martha said. “He's a detective. Like you, only more specialized. He knows what he's talking about. Because he's—hold on, that's your name, isn't it? Like he's the Doctor and you're the Detective.”

“Bloody hell,” he muttered. “Not now.”

She grimaced. She was trying to help, and if that meant selling the rhino looking creatures on his credentials—which she hadn't seen—she would.

“We have jurisdiction. Scans indicate you are not human. That makes you—”

“Guilty? On what charge?” the Detective asked, folding his arms over his chest. “Aye, that's the problem, isn't it? I'm not guilty of anything, so far as you know. I'm just an unregistered hybrid, which is not illegal under galactic law.”

Marth looked at him. Was he right about that? Because she wasn't so sure. Though she knew people had come a long way, she also knew that there were still others bothered by her dad and Annalise, and not because the woman was a gold digger half his age.

“Think about it,” the Detective went on. “You're here for a specific non-human. A specific criminal non-human, aren't you?”

“Mrs. Finnegan,” Martha said. “She's a plasmavore. She killed Mr. Stoker.”

The Detective gave her a look, and she thought he was going to tell her to shut it again. “Do another scan. You've got your tools there. Analyze me. Am I a bloody plasmavore? The answer's no, in case you're too thick to get that one.”

“You know,” she began, thinking he should really watch himself since he was going to get them both killed with that attitude. “You might want to think about—”

“Confirm. Human. Confirm, non-human. No data exists on non-human species,” the Judoon said, lowering the scanner. “No trace of plasmavore.”

“Now, if you really want to find that plasmavore, follow us,” the Detective said, not waiting for them to respond before he turned around and started walking. Martha swallowed, running to catch up with him.

“You know where she is? The Doctor didn't say, but you told them—are you able to communicate with him? Like, you have something in your ear or a mobile or—”

“No.”

“You're a right misery, you are,” Martha said. “Did he get all the social stuff and you didn't? Is that because you're only half-human and half—what is he, anyway?”

“Dead,” the Detective said, stopping inside the MRI room. Martha stared in horror as the Doctor's body hit the floor. No. He couldn't be dead. He was the only one she thought could save them, and he was—he was weird and alien and fascinating, and she couldn't accept it. He wasn't gone.

“Now see what you've done,” Mrs. Finnegan said to the Judoon. “This poor man just died of fright.”

The Detective snorted. The Judoon moved in front of her, blocking her from getting to the Doctor. She shouldn't have hesitated, but she'd been in shock. 

“Scan him,” the head rhino ordered. “Confirmation. Deceased.”

“No, he can't be,” Martha said, looking over at the Detective, begging him to tell her she was wrong. He didn't. “Let me through. Let me see him.”

“Stop,” the Judoon ordered. He did a scan, and it confirmed the Doctor as non-human. “Case closed.”

“Oh, you are so bloody thick,” the Detective muttered. “And blind. Completely blind. I suppose we all look alike to you, but we're not. Still—”

“They could be twins,” Martha snapped, shaking her head. “Besides, we all know—it was her. She killed him. She did it. She murdered him.”

“Judoon have no authority over human crime.”

“She's not human,” Martha protested as the Detective answered, “and neither was he.”

“Oh, but I am,” Mrs. Finnegan told them with a sickening smile. “I've been cataloged.”

“She's not,” Martha insisted. She had faked that scan. The Doctor had told her about that. What had he called it? “She assimilated the blood—Wait a minute. You drank his blood? The Doctor's blood?”

Martha grabbed a scanner from the Judoon and pointed it at the woman, who just kept grinning so smugly that Martha wanted to smack her right in her murderous alien face.

“Oh, I don't mind. Scan all you like.”

“Non-human.”

“What?”

Martha smiled in triumph, looking at the Detective. He didn't smile back, still looking grim. She swallowed. Maybe they were wrong about the Doctor. They had to be. He was alien, and that device couldn't identify what his other half was, so maybe the Doctor could still be alive somehow.

“Confirm analysis.”

“Oh, but it's a mistake, surely,” Mrs. Finnegan said, trying to act innocent. “I'm human. I'm as human as they come.”

The Detective snorted again, and Martha almost wanted to laugh at that. She shook her head, though, keeping her focus where it should be. “He gave his life so they'd find you.”

“Confirm,” the Judoon said. “Plasmavore, charged with the crime of murdering the child princess of Patrival Regency Nine.”

“Well, she deserved it!” Mrs. Finnegan said, giving up the pretense of innocence. “Those pink cheeks and those blonde curls and that simpering voice. She was begging for the bite of a plasmavore.”

“Then you confess?”

Mrs. Finnegan laughed. “Confess? I'm proud of it! Slab, stop them!”

The creature moved toward the Judoon, but they fired first, and it was gone in a flash. Martha almost wished they'd had that gun with them for the first one, though it was rather funny when the Doctor hopped around on one foot. He was mad, and it was kind of wonderful in a way.

“Verdict, guilty. Sentence, execution.”

Mrs. Finnegan ran back behind the glass, and Martha couldn't see what she was doing from here, but it couldn't be good. She thought she heard the Detective swearing as the plasmavore spoke. “Enjoy your victory, Judoon, because you're going to burn with me. Burn in hell!”

All of the Judoon fired at Mrs. Finnegan, and she disappeared under the combination of their beams. Martha hadn't liked her much, but it was still strange to think she was dead. If only they'd been able to stop her from killing the Doctor first. 

“Case closed.”

Martha ignored them. She no longer cared what they thought or did. They hadn't been any help, and while she knew that Mrs. Finnegan was a killer, Martha still hadn't wanted her dead. She should have had a real trial. She turned to the Detective. 

“What did she mean, burn with me?” Martha asked. “The scanner shouldn't be doing that. She's done something to it.”

“Aye, she did,” the Detective said, and the Judoon pointed their scanner at it.

“Scans detect lethal acceleration of monomagnetic pulse.”

Martha looked at the Judoon and then back at the Detective. “Can you stop it?”

“Our jurisdiction has ended. Judoon will evacuate.”

“Figures,” the Detective muttered. He looked her over. “You a doctor, then? What are you standing here for? See if there's anything you can do. Honestly. You people, fall all over like the alien's gonna save you, and never once think to do it your bloody selves. And they wonder why I want nothing to do with the damned aliens.”

Martha shook her head at his speech, kneeling down next to the Doctor. She started doing compressions on his chest. She didn't know if it would help, but she did them on both sides anyway, knowing she had to try and save him if she could. She knew he'd saved them, but if the Detective couldn't fix what Finnegan had done to the MRI, then it wouldn't matter, would it?

“Come on, Doctor,” Martha said, leaning down to breathe into his mouth.

“Bollocks.”

She turned, looking back at the Detective. She couldn't do anything about it, whatever it was. It was too late. The air was gone. She couldn't breathe, and it was all so dark...

* * *

“You know, that could have killed you. No guarantee it wouldn't have, not one,” the Doctor said, giving his new acquaintance a hard look. He didn't remember all of Canary Wharf, and he knew that he couldn't, but he was so, so curious. He couldn't help it. He could feel the presence in his mind, and that was only something that happened with a Time Lord.

Only this wasn't him, not a future him, no paradox, except for the whole half-human thing, because that _was_ impossible.

“Did,” the other man said, leaning back against the wall. “Can't... breathe... again.”

“Oh, that's the bubble around the hospital collapsing,” the Doctor told him. “With your genes, you're fairing better than the others. Just look at poor Martha.”

The other man did. “They... all... die?”

“Only if the Judoon don't reverse the H20 scoop,” the Doctor said. “They should. Any second now. They got her, didn't they? And they left? So why aren't they sending the hospital back?”

“They... weren't happy... having more non-humans... running about,” the other man said, and the Doctor grimaced. He supposed they seemed like they were meddling, but it wasn't like the Judoon had been smart about any of this, and without him, they would have let that plasmavore go.

“Wait,” the Doctor said, feeling the pressure change. The respiratory bypass would have sustained him, just as it was the other man, at least for a bit longer, but even still, without that reversal, everyone here would die. If he was right, though, they were about to be back on Earth. “I think I feel the rain.”

“You're... daft.”

The Doctor smiled at him. “Just a few more minutes and we'll all be back to—oh, but we should get Martha out to the balcony. She'll get air back faster, less risk of brain damage, speed up recovery. Least we can do. She was a big help.”

“Was going... blame the vortex manipulator... think... hearts still failing. Bloody hell...”

“What? No,” the Doctor said. This was a day where everyone lived. Well, almost everyone. He knew that he couldn't bring back those the plasmavore or the Judoon already killed, but the rest of the hospital should survive. These humans would live, they'd have so many more adventures.

He rushed over to the other man, putting his ear to his chest and taking a good listen. Not like having a stethoscope, but he had good hearing and it would have to do in a pinch. “Huh. Sounds fine to me. Shame about my screwdriver. Fried it killing the slab. Still, you seem to be in a perfect cardiac rhythm. Well, for someone who is in the middle of respiratory bypass, that is.”

“What?”

The Doctor frowned, rocking back on his heels. “You don't know about respiratory bypass? How can you not know about it? It's such a basic function of our—”

“Only known... half Time Lord for... two.... three... days,” the other man said, and the Doctor stared at him. “Raised human. For... protection.”

“Right, well,” the Doctor said, bursting with curiosity, but knowing he could ask all those questions. “You'll be fine. Your body adjusted itself to cope with the diminished oxygen. It'll switch back in a bit. Not at all to worry. Though... I expect it will be... uncomfortable for you.”

The other man looked at him, but all further questions were halted by the hospital returning to its original position as roughly as it had landed on the moon. Well, perhaps not as many humans would survive as he'd hoped, but still, back on Earth, that was a good thing.

“Took a risk you did,” he said, watching the other man try and right himself after the landing. “Going out against the Judoon. They could have assumed you were the non-human they were looking for and executed you.”

“Isn't... that what you planned on doing? Using a bit... of non-human on her... slow them down?”

“It is,” the Doctor agreed. “Hmm. Not like your telepathic abilities should be stronger, but you seem to know me all too well. Of course, you must. You just know me in a different time. Bit of a leap there thinking you'd have advanced abilities. Still, it's not like I can't sense you up there so I suppose it was a bit of wishful thinking, as it were—”

“Saliva.” The other man shifted his position, needing to get comfortable again. “Lick... or kiss?”

“Well,” the Doctor said. “I have been known, a bit, for being quite eager to lick things. New body, new tastebuds. So many flavors. So many senses. And the tongue! Perfect instrument for analysis. So many things learned in so little time. Still... humans. They seem to find being licked by aliens rather objectionable. So, in lieu of that, I probably would have gone the other route—strange how that is less invasive, isn't it?”

“Bloody moron.”

“Oi, there's no call for that,” the Doctor said. “I could have spit on her or exchanged some _other_ fluid, which that really is—”

“Kisses mean things to humans,” the other man snapped. Ah, sounded like his difficulty breathing—and coping with the bypass—was gone. “You might have said it was nothing, but it's never nothing. Trust me.”

“An expert, are you?”

The other man grunted. “Tess... she told me once, said she never saw me as anything. Drunken kiss at New Year's... Ended up married. Had a daughter. _Have_ a daughter. Lasted over a decade, me and her. Not sure she ever saw the truth.”

The Doctor winced. “You loved her.”

“Did, yes,” the other man agreed. “More the fool me, but us humans and our rubbish emotions.”

Humans weren't the only ones who had them, the Doctor thought, but he didn't say it.

“This Martha,” the other man said, rising and pushing away from the wall as he started moving toward her. “She helped you. She deserves better than that. You want that from her later, fine, but you start whatever you have with her on the proper footing.”

“You're going to lecture me on relationships?”

“Divorced. Makes me a bit of an expert on what not to do.”

“Yes, I suppose it would,” the Doctor agreed, nodding and following him over to Martha's side. “She's breathing, and that's a start. I don't know. You think she'd fancy a trip as a way to say thanks? Just one, mind you. I'm still trying to convince Donna she really wants to go, and Rose will want to come again once her family's settled, so... Plenty of company.”

“Right.”

The Doctor looked at him. “You weren't... interested, were you?”

“I've been in the TARDIS. Prefer it over a vortex manipulator.”

“Vortex manipulator? What are you doing going about with one of those? Embarrassing for a Time Lord, even if you're only half.”

“Wasn't a choice,” the other man said. He shook his head. “They took it from me when they brought me in. And I need it back. Otherwise we're talking another paradox. And there are too many of them already. I shouldn't be here.”

“In more than one sense, I suspect,” the Doctor said, frowning. “You're my son, aren't you?”

“Do we have to do that every bloody time?”

“At least until we get the timelines right, I suppose,” the Doctor said, grimacing. He wasn't going to want to forget this, and now he'd have to deal with Martha's memories, too, if he took her along. Would she buy the Time Agent thing as Rose's family had? Probably not. “Well, then... Best find that vortex manipulator of yours. _Allons-y.”_

“Do you have to do _that_ every time, too?”

The Doctor just laughed.


	29. Time for Technology

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hardy says goodbye to the Doctor again.
> 
> And they just might have what they need to keep Joe locked up forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I know of how I have to go from here. Like I said, still stuff to fix, but I want to wrap up a bit before going to it. That's the real problem, taking on too much at once. Well, mostly.
> 
> The rest is me, as usual.

* * *

_“Tell me the truth.”_

_“Which one?”_

_“Oh, don't start. None of that Obi-Wan Kenobi crap. This isn't about points of view. This is about you telling me the truth for once in your life. Why did you do it?”_

_“I can't tell you that.”_

* * *

“Are you sure about this?” the Doctor asked, holding up the vortex manipulator with a frown. “This thing has more than seen better days. I don't think you should use it again. Might not make it where you need to go. You could only half materialize or something. No, I'll take you.”

“You can't,” Hardy said. “Not only are you there, but several other people are there that you can't meet yet. Bunch of timelines getting crossed and paradoxes being created, and since I seem to be one giant walking _mess_ of a paradox, that is not a good idea.”

The Doctor frowned. “You—no, I suppose I shouldn't ask, but then again, speaking purely in the most selfish manner I possibly can... I happen to like this paradox.”

Hardy looked at him. “You don't know me. And last time we met—well, one of them, damned confusing timelines—you were not happy with me.”

The Doctor tensed. “I take it Rose was meant to fall into the void?”

“I don't know,” Hardy admitted. He hadn't asked Jack what happened to Rose, though he knew that it had. He should have from the beginning, since he'd seen how Jack reacted when he saw Rose, as though he hadn't thought she'd be the one with the Doctor.

“Still, you changed it. Gave her back to me,” the Doctor said. He shook his head. “It's difficult to be angry about that. Rose is... Rose is a bit like salvation. She was what I needed after the Time War. I didn't think she was, would have laughed if someone said that, but she was. She reminded me of the good things out there, helped me find a balance between the guilt of surviving and enjoying life again. I used to call her a stupid ape, but she never was. Humans, you have this innocence about you in so many ways, and I needed that. I poison it, but I need it all the same.”

Hardy swallowed. “Daisy.”

“No, her name is Rose. You do remember—oh,” the Doctor said. “Your daughter. Her name is Daisy, isn't it? Nice name. I like that name. Reminds me of happy flowers. And... she's wonderful, isn't she? Your little girl?”

“She's fifteen. Not little, not anymore, but she's still special. My world.” Hardy shook his head. “Listen to me. Getting soppy.”

“It's not just her, though, is it?” the Doctor asked, and Hardy wanted to curse his father's perception. “This isn't the first time you've had to say goodbye to me, and we both know it won't be the last. This is... more difficult than it should be. You're a stranger to me, I shouldn't care at all, and it's impossible, you existing at all, so I should be glad to forget and not worry about the implications, but even with Rose... I'm alone. I've been alone for what feels like forever. That emptiness since Gallifrey burned...”

“I know.”

“You do?”

“You went into my head to give me shields,” Hardy explained. “I saw things in your mind, more than I have had time to sort through, and you saw things in mine.”

“I'll forget.”

“Like that makes it better.”

“No, you're right. It doesn't,” the Doctor said. He shook his head. “I know that I likely wasn't a proper father to you. I don't think I'd ever be that for any child, not me. I'm a runner. I've done it since I was a child. Looked into the schism and fled. So I know I wasn't there for you, and even now... I'm not. I can't be. I have to forget.”

“Don't think I blame you.”

“No, I know you don't. That's... that's something I don't deserve, but I appreciate it,” the Doctor said. “Are you _sure_ you don't want me to take you in the TARDIS? I don't want to risk you not making it back due to that thing.”

Hardy looked down at the vortex manipulator. Admittedly, he didn't like his chances, but he was still convinced that he couldn't allow his father to cross the timelines like that. He'd already done enough damage. “No, I have to go back the way I came.”

“Quite right,” the Doctor said. “Well, come on, then. Don't think that you're leaving without a hug.”

“Nine hundred year old soppy alien,” Hardy muttered, and the Doctor laughed. He wrapped his arms around him, and Hardy tried not to tense up as his father held him. “You know... giving you back Rose—that could have damaged so much of the timelines—”

“Doesn't matter,” his father said. “It's done now. You can't go back to alter it again. Time's too weak there. Any further alteration would be catastrophic. Just... accept it. I have. I'm grateful. Rose promised forever. I know it can't last, but you've given me more time than I would have had, and that is still precious. All of it is. You know that. You have Daisy.”

Hardy nodded. He did, and he'd had enough experience to regret the time he'd lost with her over the years. Too many investigations, too many deaths, and then his own looming mortality that had led him far from her when he wanted her most.

“I should go. We both should,” the Doctor said. He swallowed. “Now. Both of us. Before we convince ourselves not to.”

* * *

“You have to give me more information,” Toshiko said, frowning. “I've run the search, but there are just too many possibilities given the range of dates.”

“He did say he left Cardiff because of it,” Ellie said. “Implied it, more like, but no, we can't be sure it was just that or that it was right before he left. It took almost two months for him to fall apart over Danny's death, and if he had left right after he killed that other boy, it might have been suspicious. Joe... He was good at hiding what he was.”

“I'm sorry, Ellie,” Rose said, touching her arm. “I know this is hard for you.”

She shook her head. “I wish I could _gut_ that bastard. I hate him now, so much, for what he's done. For never admitting to me what he was, for making it all a lie. For putting our boys in danger. And I want him to pay for what he did to Danny. And this other boy, if he's not lying about that, too.”

“Oh, he wouldn't lie to the Doctor,” Jack said, coming back into the room with the Doctor at his side. “Trouble is, he's back to refusing to talk again.”

“You're bloody joking.”

“I only wish I was,” Jack told her. “I don't get it, either. It's not like he should react more to someone who is half Time Lord than a full one, even one that is a casual nexus.”

“You said that before,” Ellie said, frowning. She did remember him calling Hardy that right before he and the Doctor left to confront Joe again, though no one who understood it had bothered to explain that to those what didn't. Ellie had gone back to what she knew best—being a copper. She wanted to find this other boy Joe had hurt and end this for good. And now she was back into the weird again, and she didn't think that would happen. “What is that?”

“A causal nexus is a place in space and time that is malleable,” the Doctor began, and she stared at him. “They're actually rather rare. There are fixed points, things that can't be altered—Pompeii, for instance—and there are places where time doesn't adapt to minor changes. It even resists them. So when you find a point like this, where causality is weak, then you can produce aberrant loops or new alternate timelines. Are you at all familiar with parallel universe theory?”

Ellie nodded. “Tom told me about it once. That there are hundreds of worlds based on every choice you make. He even asked if his father had been replaced by one from another universe and he was evil. We almost had a laugh about that, but... that can actually happen?”

“No,” the Doctor said. “Parallel universe travel... that died with the Time Lords. My people could do it, and we did it safely, but without them... No. It's not possible.”

“And how is a person a weak point in space and time?”

“Well, most of them are centered around planets, with Earth being by far one of the worst offenders. You humans, always blundering about—”

Rose coughed. “Rude.”

“Right. So I am. Still, the point is that Earth is a sort of... gathering ground for them. As to Alec being one, well... he's an anomaly in the first place. He shouldn't exist. Humans and Time Lords are incompatible in terms of interspecies breeding, and we're not even sure where he comes from in the future, only that he was given to the past to raise. That makes his timelines very twisted and difficult to follow. It doesn't help that he's actually changed events in the future,” the Doctor said. “He is a paradox, and he's fixing paradoxes by creating paradoxes, if that makes any sense at all.”

“No.”

Rose forced a smile. “It's okay. I've had two years with him, and I still don't understand most of it, even though I try. Sarah Jane, did you?”

“A bit,” the older woman said, “but even with what I've learned over the years, I have my doubts about how much I actually understood.”

Ellie sighed. “Um, back to what I understand, then. How do we find this boy Joe killed if we can't get him to talk? Or are you planning on some harsher methods to get him to talk?”

“No,” the Doctor said immediately.

“He doesn't approve of that sort of thing,” Jack said. “No, we'll need a more subtle method.”

“You're not actually expecting us to wait for Hardy to come back, are we?”

“We could, but I think we might try the ghost machine first.”

* * *

“You shouldn't have this.”

“Doctor, you can't be here every time we've got a crisis, and someone has to keep this sort of thing out of the general public's hands,” Jack said, getting a glare from the Doctor anyway. He ignored it. They had to find out the truth of what Joe Miller had done, and if they could prove that, they'd get him locked up for good, away from everyone he had already hurt and the ones he'd keep on hurting.

“That is centuries ahead of your current level of development. You can't have it.”

“Oh, you can fry it after we're done,” Jack said. “Besides, we might just need this as a bit of a threat. Bluffing worked well on him the first time, after all.”

“Bluffing?” Ellie asked, frowning.

“You didn't think he'd actually chuck anyone into a black hole, did ya?” Rose smiled. “'Course not. He's too good for that. He always gives someone a way out, and that's what he did with Joe. Joe took it, once he had the right motivation. Though... he's screwed it up again, and he really shouldn't get a second chance—”

“Rose,” the Doctor said, and she stopped talking, forcing another smile. Jack had a feeling the only reason Joe Miller got that second chance was because of the Doctor's family being around—he wouldn't show that sort of thing to Daisy, maybe not even to his grown son.

“So we go explain in great detail what the ghost machine does, and we tell him we're going to use it on each and every crime scene. We'll find not only what he did, but how to prove it because even if he thinks he cleaned it up or covered it up, it's not gone. We were able to get the details on a murder that was over fifty years old. We can do this,” Jack said. “And if he doesn't give in to the threat, it's what we do. We go to each house, use the machine, and find out the truth.”

“You can't. That sort of investigation—”

“Won't be legal, ever,” Jack agreed. “I know that. I'm not saying we can solve every crime this way or that we will, but as long as Joe Miller exists, he's not just a threat to young boys and that town back there, he's a threat to _you._ To your family. To the whole damned mess of space and time because your son is mixed up in a lot of timelines, and if something happened to even _one_ of them—”

“I know,” the Doctor said, cutting Jack off. “Fine. Let's get Joe Miller dealt with, then. Locked up where he can't harm anyone again, and we'll be free to go after the Flyboln known as Claire.”

“Sounds good. Ellie, get those lists. We'll need to rank them in order of the most likely in case we have to use the machine at every stop.”

“Jack,” Gwen began, “Who is actually going to use that? Because when we tried before, it didn't work for you. For me and for Owen and for Bernie, but not you.”

“Fixed point,” the Doctor said. “Yes, I can see how that would be a problem in making it work.”

“It wouldn't be the only technology that didn't work on Jack,” Toshiko agreed. “Still, if he can't make it work, then someone else will. And it was extremely traumatic for Gwen.”

“I saw the future,” Gwen said. “I killed someone.”

“He made you do it,” Jack told her. “Suicide by cop. If it hadn't been you, it would have been someone else. And we're only going to use half the machine, the one that does the past. If we use it at all. Remember, the whole point is to make Joe talk. He's supposed to confess.”

“Then why hasn't he?” Ellie asked. “Why wouldn't he just do it? Bloody bastard. He said he would turn himself in. It's all lies. Every word out of his mouth. I can't believe I married him. None of it was real. That's it. I'll tear him apart myself. I—”

“Calm down, Miller.”

“I will not bloody calm down. I am going to—Hardy?”

* * *

“Dad,” Daisy cried, rushing over to embrace him again, and the Doctor winced as Alec almost fell over with the impact. She wasn't that big, but he seemed much weaker than he should have been. He grabbed the screwdriver out of his pocket and switched the settings, doing a quick scan of his son, making sure it was 

“Easy, Darling,” Alec said, holding on and using her for support. “I'm a bit... tender at the moment.”

She looked up at him with a frown. “What happened? Where were you?”

“The moon,” Alec answered, and she stared at him. “Honestly. It's a long story, and I'll tell you later. Promise. First, I want this thing very far away from me. I never want to see it again.”

“I'll take that,” Jack said, rushing over to retrieve his vortex manipulator. “And you're just in time. Joe Miller's not talking. Again. Won't tell us who the kid was that he hurt. And there are an alarming number of deaths that fit the details he gave us—if he wasn't lying in the first place.”

“Bloody hell.”

“You need to rest,” the Doctor said. “And no traveling through time by vortex manipulator again. It's taking an alarming toll on your unique physiology.”

“You say that like I had a choice in the matter,” Alec muttered. “Didn't. That thing just... went off. Next thing I know, I'm in the middle of London. Again.”

“You crossed the same point in time again?”

“I thought you said you were on the moon?” Daisy asked. “Did you lie to me again? Because if you are lying to me again—”

“Royal Hope Hospital,” Toshiko said. “Aliens took it to the moon. Of course, most people say that was a hoax, but they also say that about the ship that hit Big Ben, the destruction of Downing street, the Mars probe on Christmas, the metal—”

“No more spoilers, Tosh,” Jack told her. He turned back to the Doctor. “You are going to forget about all of this, right? Because you really shouldn't know some of that.”

The Doctor grimaced. Sometimes he thought he'd like to know where he was going. Other times, he hated it. Prophecies and inevitabilities—no, he didn't want that. And there were still the words of the Beast lurking in his mind. Rose dying in battle. That could not be allowed to happen.

And he also had no intention of losing his son, now or ever.

Even if he knew he had to forget about him.

“There's more,” Ellie said. “Looks like Claire might be an alien, too.”

“You're bloody kidding,” Alec snapped. “No. There are enough killers out there that are human. I don't only attract the alien criminals. She's not an alien.”

“She's a Flyboln,” the Doctor said. “She very much believes she's human. Or she did. That may be degrading, which is why need to finish this matter with Joe Miller for good and go deal with her before the fallout takes out Dorset.”

“Are you _sure_ it's a Flyboln?” Jack asked. “Just because we know she looks like Gwen doesn't necessarily make her one of them.”

The Doctor couldn't prove it, though the fact that the woman had turned against a chosen mate, a part of her that made her human existence real, to follow his son's direction suggested that she was. Only the command of a Time Lord could do that to a Flyboln, and while he couldn't be sure that was what it was, he was almost certain of it. That was how the universe worked, endlessly punishing him for his actions in the Time War.

“It would make sense if it was, Alec,” Sarah Jane said, and he looked over at her with a frown. “You know you've always sort of... pulled those sorts of things to you. Not that I think you meant to, but aliens seemed to... find you, even when you were doing your best to pretend they didn't exist.”

“Letting UNIT deal with them is not the same as pretending they don't exist,” Alec grumbled. “And I still haven't forgiven them for that thing with the plasmavore on on All Hallow's, either. Bloody morons.”

“Next time, call us,” Jack said. “We're a lot better at this sort of thing.”

Alec gave him a dark look. “Two words.”

“I know, but that wasn't us. We're different. And we're good at what we do, trust me. Now, would you like to end this thing with Joe or not?”

“Yes,” everyone said at the same time.


	30. Time for Investigation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hardy and the others look into the death of a boy they think Joe killed.

* * *

_"Were you ever going to mention this?” He asked, folding his arms over his chest. “Or was that just something you figured on neglecting for the rest of your life?”_

 _“I had to forget. You think I wouldn't have told you if I knew?”_

_“I don't know what you would have done, that's the point.”_

_“You really don't know me at all, do you?”_

_“I think it's pretty obvious that I don't.”_

* * *

“I think it's safe to say that bluff didn't work.”

“No, it bloody well did not,” Ellie snapped, putting a hand to her head. “I don't believe this. Every interaction I have with that man gets worse and worse. Where is the one I married? No, he never existed at all, did he?”

“It's very likely that the shadow is pushing him to get reactions from you,” the Doctor told her, trying to be gentle about it. “I think we should refrain from giving him any further opportunity to do so. Let's just concentrate on that list you made, shall we?”

“I thought of other factors for your search,” Hardy said, going over to Toshiko's computer. “Were there any that lived near him? Within walking distance. Easy access.”

“Like Danny,” Ellie said, trying not to be sick again. “Are you sure we can't just go back in time and stop him? We could... I don't know, erase his memories and make him start over. He might forget he was a pedophile, and if we took that shadow thing away, too, he might not get as perverted as he is.”

“It would seem to be easier, yes, but it isn't,” the Doctor said. “For one, you'd lose your children. For another... Your husband's timeline intersects with Alec's, so we are looking at significant damage to time itself if anything alters the point when—well, I believe him surrendering to Alec is a fixed point, and we can't alter that, not even by going ahead of the event.”

“Bloody marvelous.”

“Look, we just have to—”

“Here,” Toshiko said, pointing to the screen, “Keith Humphries. Age ten, died of a fall down the basement stairs in his apartment building. He was near the top of the list before, but the location search was based on where he worked as a paramedic. Switching it to his residence, I'd say this is the boy we're looking for. Joe Miller lived in a flat the next building over.”

Ellie stared at her. “That's it, then? We have the boy we think Joe killed?”

“Have to prove it now, Miller, and it wasn't treated as suspicious back then. They've got bloody nothing on it,” Hardy muttered, disgusted. “Look at this. Bloody disgrace. I'd have had both the DS and the pathologist up on charges. Completely incompetent.”

“He's right,” Owen said, for once not grumbling or calling any of them insane. “These injuries aren't consistent with a fall from that height, and there's no note of other bruising that should be there if he took a tumble down the stairs. They didn't even wait long enough for them to show up postmordem.”

Ellie looked at Hardy. He actually seemed like he was a little impressed by that. Not enough to admit it, but still dangerously pleased.

“So... if he was exhumed, there's a chance that we'd find more evidence?”

“Eight years from now?” Owen snorted. “Not bloody likely.”

“Just because we reopen the case now doesn't mean we get an arrest now,” Hardy said. “These things go cold for years, even with the best of investigators and forensics on the case. No, we just have to get the ball rolling now and then we can go back to our proper time, connect the dots, and send him back, confession or no confession.”

“You're sure about that?”

“Miller, if he walks into my office after I arrest Joe Miller, drops off a request I made to test Joe's DNA against any other unsolved crimes in Britain, we'd have the results by the time of the trial. Actually, no, that's a bit too soon, but midtrial would work,” Hardy said, thinking aloud and sounding a bit like his father, minus a few tangents. “After the confession was thrown out. That timing would be about perfect, and since we'd use my father to make the request, we're not crossing my timeline.”

“I like it,” the Doctor said. “Except for the part about having to dress like you. Well, the suit's fine. I like suits. I have a fondness for them in multiple bodies, and this one is partial to brown, but there was this blue one I was thinking of using—but the face... How is it you don't know what a razor is?”

“He does,” Sarah Jane said, and Daisy nodded. “That's only since he got sick.”

“Since Pippa and the river,” Daisy added, getting a look from her father. “It's true. And I _do_ know, even if you think I shouldn't.”

“Do you people actually ever get anything done?” Owen asked. “I almost expected you to start debating best razor quality or the merits of facial hair.”

“I'd be up for that,” Jack said, winking at the Doctor _and_ his son.

“We still have to go to Keith's house and prove that he was the boy Joe killed,” Ellie reminded all of them. “And we have to have forensics for them to match up in the future. That doesn't get done if we get distracted. Again.”

“I'll do it,” Gwen said, and they all turned to frown at her. “I was able to work the ghost machine before, and I can do it again. I—I want to. I want you to know I'm not her. She might look like me, this Claire, but she's not me. I know I've made lots of mistakes, especially here, but I'm not a bad person. Not... most of the time.”

“She's just a little conflicted,” Jack said, grinning as she flushed and looked away. “And human. Very human. That's why we brought her on board. The human perspective. Actually, Doc, it might be better if my team handled this.”

“Put the fate of Joe Miller into Torchwood's hands?” Hardy snorted. “Perhaps if I felt your general incompetence would get him killed, aye, I'd do it, but this is going to be tricky enough with as many bloody times as we've crossed time already.”

“Your daughter is way too young to impersonate an officer, even if she seems smarter than most of the coppers I know,” Jack said, grinning. “Your mother is a very lovely woman, but also a well known investigative journalist, and having her impersonate a policewoman would compromise the case. You, Alec, are going to make the request later, so it shouldn't be you that investigates it now. For one thing, I don't think you would have dropped it here if you did find it.”

Ellie gave Hardy a look. “He's got a point. You didn't quit after Sandbrook even when you were dying. You wouldn't have given up on Keith's case if it was yours.”

“You trying to flatter me, Miller? Or is this some trick so you won't have to work with me again?” Hardy asked, studying her.

She tried not to flinch. She knew she didn't want to go back to being a PC and writing traffic tickets. She'd had a taste of a real investigation, ones that mattered—she hated to think of murder that way, but it was more important to find a killer than it was some vandal or even a poacher—and how did she go back again? Or did she still need to do her penance for Joe's crime?

“And Ellie, well, she's stuck in the same place as you if not worse,” Jack said. “So it'll have to be my team that does this.”

“Jack, we'll still have to interact with the locals as Torchwood,” Gwen reminded him, and he winced. Ellie looked at Hardy, but if he knew what Torchwood actually did, he wasn't going to say anything about it here. For some reason, he was keeping the details from his father, and she didn't understand that, but she didn't want to.

“I know,” Jack agreed. “We—well, you can smooth the way, Gwen. You were a PC. Just say you were asked to look into it by... Damn. I guess we have to use Rose.”

“Oi, are you insulting my intelligence?” Rose asked. “You think I'm too stupid to pull it off? I'll have you know I've impersonated a policewoman before, and I was just fine. Besides, if it's really that bad, Gwen can do all the talking.”

“You are a bit young,” Ellie told her, recalling her own experience going up the ranks and that was in a small constabulary. “They might not believe you had the authority to open up an old case like Keith's.”

“What about a perception filter?” Daisy asked. “If that thing kept UNIT from recognizing Dad as your twin, then you can just use that to keep anyone from connecting Dad or whoever goes in his place to anyone else.”

“Daisy, you're absolutely brilliant,” the Doctor said, beaming at her.

* * *

Gwen stood in the lobby of the building that had once been home to Keith Humphries. She took a deep breath as the button on the machine started blinking. “That's it, then. I'll push this, and I'll see what happened to Keith Humphries.”

“Hold on,” Rose began, frowning a bit. She knew she might be annoying with the questions, but she wanted to be useful, wanted to belong where she was, since she didn't think most of them understood why she got to come or why she was with the Doctor. “Wasn't his body found in the basement?”

“Doesn't mean he died there,” Hardy said, and next to him, Ellie nodded. “He might have ended up there, but it would seem our Joe Miller has a habit of moving bodies and staging accidents.”

“Bloody hell. He had done it before Danny,” Ellie said, running her hands over her arms. “I thought he was—it was just an accident—he wasn't—he was an amateur.”

“All the more likely to repeat what seemed to work the first time,” Hardy told her, and she swore.

“Could be this isn't the place,” Gwen said. “Just because there's something here doesn't mean it's Keith's or Joe's.”

“You sure you want to do this?” Rose asked, feeling like history was repeating itself. She was back with Gwenyth, trying to convince that girl not to give herself over to demons masquerading as angels.

She nodded. “I've done it before, and I don't have the part that does the future. It's okay. And... really, if anything happens, I probably deserve it.”

Rose frowned, but Gwen pushed the button. She stood still, not moving, and Rose swallowed, turning to Hardy. “Please tell me that thing didn't kill her.”

“It shouldn't have,” Hardy said, looking Gwen over. “She's still breathing. Her mind's just being stimulated on a level that's not visible to us.”

“You're sure?”

He glared at Rose. “No, I'm not bloody sure. None of this is my specialty. You all seem to forget that. I look like him, so I know everything he does? Doesn't work that way.”

Gwen dropped the device, shaking, and Ellie rushed over to catch her as she stumbled. Tears ran down Gwen's face, and she curled up against herself. “He was so scared...”

“Damn it,” Ellie said, kneeling next to her. “Joe did it? He killed him?”

Gwen looked up from her knees and forced herself to nod. “He... He did. Keith liked him at first, but when Joe put his hand on his cheek, when he... he kissed him, Keith was scared, and he ran. Joe caught him on the stairs.”

“Maybe we should all have seen what you saw,” Ellie began, frowning. Hardy gave her a look, frowning. “How are we going to know where to look for evidence if we don't?”

“Same way we always do,” he said. “Don't get any crazy ideas about using alien technology for everything. We don't need it—and you don't want to see that. No, we just need to walk the scene like we would any other. We didn't have that thing for Danny or Lisa or Pippa, but we got it done.”

Ellie nodded. She looked at Gwen. “You shouldn't have had to see that.”

“She's right,” Rose said. “One of us could have done it. Any of us.”

Gwen shook her head. “I'll be fine. And if that man was really your husband, you don't want to see what he did.”

“No, we need the actual crime scene,” Hardy said, walking away from them. “Not here. He wouldn't have started out in the open, even if he hadn't been planning on trying anything with the boy. No, he would have been—upstairs. The boy's flat. Come on, Miller.”

“You're right,” Gwen said, forcing herself up and after him as he climbed the stairs, “but you could have just asked me.”

“Not his style,” Ellie said, shaking her head, but Rose thought she was grudgingly amused.

“He claimed there was an injured mother with a long recovery, so he wouldn't risk anything in the flat, but if he was standing at the door—he might have done it then, just there, an impulse, and then when Keith panicked—he fell down those stairs, not the ones in the basement, just like that prat back there said.”

“Wait, did you see what I saw?” Gwen demanded. “That never happened before. Not any other time we used the machine.”

“He's in his element,” Ellie said. “He may be a knob, but he's good.”

Rose looked at her. “Is he now?”

“At being a cop,” Ellie said. “He's still a wanker in every other respect."

Gwen ignored them. “That is what I saw. Keith walked with him to the door, Joe leaned down to say goodbye, and then he kissed him. Keith panicked, but Joe blocked him from the flat and so he went for the stairs and fell. You're sure that isn't some part of you being half whatever it is you are?”

“He's a Time demi-Lord,” Rose said, and Hardy gave him a look. “You're not going to get rid of that, not when the Doctor named you it. Besides, it's better than aberration, hybrid, or casual nexus. 'Cept, hold on, why put him in the basement? Why not just leave him where he fell? It was an accident, wasn't it?”

“Was it?” Hardy asked. Then he shook his head. “No, even if it was, he couldn't let anyone connect him to the boy's death. It had to be an accident, no connection to him. He needed to be home or at work for hours by the time the boy was found so he'd have an alibi.”

“Right,” Rose said. “So how do we get the forensics, then?”

“Exhume the body,” Hardy answered, and Rose winced. “Unless Cooper over there saw any blood when the boy fell—”

“There was,” Gwen said. “Right there.”

“So we have forensics. Will that be enough?”

“If we can get anything off of Keith that points to Joe being there, yes. As it is, right now we can only prove that Keith didn't die the way they think he did.”

“Great,” Rose muttered. “What if there isn't anything?”

“There will be,” Ellie said, and Rose looked at her. “We've got a bloody time machine.”

Though Rose knew that the Doctor would normally object, no one's timeline was getting crossed, so it might work. “Good point.”

* * *

Daisy looked up from the pterodactyl she was petting, her smile wide and really on the radiant side—she was so brilliant, this girl, and she shown in some ways brighter than Rose had when holding the time vortex as Bad Wolf. The Doctor knew this was dangerous, and it hurt, too, with all its reminders of being with Susan, but he still found himself wanting to spend as much time as he could with his granddaughter.

He'd willingly stayed behind while the others went to a crime scene with alien technology and hadn't whined one bit. Something was amiss with that, but he found it hard to be bothered about it when Daisy was telling him stories about her father. Not only was he getting to hear about her, he was learning so much about his son.

Domestics shouldn't be interesting, but knowing that these two people were _his_ family, that changed everything.

“Dad,” Daisy called. “Look at this. They have a real pterodactyl. I thought Jack was lying about that, but it's real.”

“You seem to think everyone lies about everything these days.”

“'Cause they do,” she said, folding her arms over her chest. “Oh, and by the way, Gramps thinks my idea of quitting school and living in the TARDIS full time is brilliant.”

“Does he now?”

“Oi, defamation of my character there,” the Doctor said, affronted. “I never said anything like that. You know how I value books. And knowledge. And experiencing new worlds and new life and everything the universe has to offer, but even Susan spent time in school and—well, there's this—I graduated from the Academy, didn't I say that? I mean, it was on the low end, and Romana did love mocking my score, but I made it and—You're laughing at me again.”

Daisy grinned before rising to go to her father's side. She hugged him, getting a look, but the smile didn't falter. “What do you think Mum would say if I told her I was quitting school to see the universe?”

“She'd arrest you,” Alec told her, shaking his head. He knew, as the Doctor did, that it couldn't happen. At least not as things stood in the present timeline. The Doctor had to forget all about Daisy. He could hope one day he'd remember, but he couldn't be sure.

“So,” the Doctor began, ready for a change of subject, “everything is settled here, then?”

“Set in motion, at least. The investigation into Keith's death has been reopened, they know it wasn't an accident, and they've begun their tests,” Alec answered. “Have to connect those results to Joe, but not before the trial falls apart.”

“And if it takes weeks to connect Joe to Keith's death?” Sarah Jane asked, sounding concerned.

“We still have to deal with Claire, don't we?” Alec shook his head. “Don't want to, but I can't deny she looks like that Gwen woman. Bloody creepy, that is.”

“Yes, it is. And where is Gwen?”

“Jack stopped us on the way in,” Ellie answered. “He said he was taking his whole team out for drinks. Why?”

“Oh, no reason,” the Doctor said, aware that none of them would remember this visit they'd just had, which was likely for the best. “Well, then, do we have everything we need? Perhaps we should count heads. Ooh, no, that's a bad idea. Never go to Feploth when it's counting season. Very, very bad.”

“Is it safe other times?” Daisy asked. “Would you take us there if it was?”

“My dear Daisy,” the Doctor said, smiling at her. “I would take you anywhere.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought what Gwen saw in the ghost machine flashback was better implied than written out. I tried to get myself to write it, but knowing what he did, I just... couldn't. My mind may go to dark places, but I don't have to write them all in detail, and this is one of those times that I won't. I've come too close to darkness enough as it is with other stories.


	31. Time for a Bit of Fun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor plays a difficult role and bonds with his family some more as they try to put Joe Miller away for life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't even know where all the fluff came from. A rebellion against the angst that was finishing the side story in Just a Stupid Dance, maybe. 
> 
> Anyway, this is a bit lighter than usual. I suppose that's not a bad thing.

* * *

_“Where are we?”_

_“Lost.”_

_“Yeah, thanks. That was helpful.”_

_“Sometimes a simple answer is the best one, and the simple answer here is that we're lost.”_

* * *

“Stop pacing like that.”

“Shut it, Miller. I'll pace if I bloody well want to.” 

Ellie rolled her eyes. Of course he'd say that. She already knew that Hardy didn't think enough about anyone else—except Daisy—to be bothered by whether or not others were annoyed by his behavior. He went about doing just about whatever he pleased, though she knew it wasn't all what he pleased—he was a strange mix of rude and idealistic, as he would do whatever it took to solve a case, never minding who he ran over, but he wouldn't let down any family he made promises to—probably why the rest of the time he was obnoxious enough to force everyone away. If you always upheld your word, and you always paid the price—well, that was not something you repeated, given half a choice.

“You'd think you were waiting on your daughter to come back from her first date, not your father,” Ellie told him, and Hardy looked back at her. “Not that he's on a date. He's off being you, which is kind of funny, if you think about it.”

“It's not,” Hardy muttered. “And it won't work.”

“It was your idea.”

He glared at her for that, and Daisy giggled, getting a glare of her own, though Sarah Jane smiled. So did Rose.

“If you really though he couldn't do this, you'd have gone in on your own, timeline or no timeline,” Ellie reminded him, and he gave her the look again.

“Is that me, or is that the Doctor's patented drooled on your shirt look?” Rose asked Sarah Jane, who smiled back. Ellie figured she was more used to it from her son and had a different name for it, but that joke meant something to the two of them.

“You really think it's that difficult to impersonate you?” Ellie asked. “All he has to do is be gruff and obnoxious to everyone he meets.”

“Exactly.”

“Well, the Doctor is rude,” Rose began, “but compared to his son and the first body I knew him with, this one's down right cuddly. What do you think, Sarah Jane? You knew other Doctors.”

“I did, yes,” Sarah Jane agreed. “And I can't say that the Doctor doesn't—didn't—have a sense of humor, because he did. He could be quite childish. Also callous and sometimes bitter. Then again, you could say that about all of us.”

“Okay, first off, I can't believe you're having doubts about your plan because your father can be friendly,” Ellie said, shaking her head. “And second—Doctors? So, what, that is just a title? Because he seemed pretty insistent that was his name. You all act like it is.”

“It is,” Sarah Jane said. “It's the name he chose himself, and it has meaning. It's just—oh, dear. I suppose we haven't actually discussed regeneration, have we?”

“We've said it, but we haven't explained it.” Rose twisted her lip, giving Hardy a long look. “Do you think he can do it, too?”

“I've never wanted to find out,” Sarah Jane answered, “though there was at least one time he was close. Very close.”

“Just a few days ago before the Doctor fixed his hearts, right?”

“Then, too, I suppose, though I didn't see it as that severe—we were all under the impression that the pacemaker was enough, and I wasn't that worried about him, not this time.”

“Don't start,” Hardy said, and Ellie could only frown. “I mean it. That is not for discussion.”

Sarah Jane rolled her eyes. “You do know that even if you are half-alien and I'm not your biological mother, I still raised you. I don't have to take orders from you.”

“Just threats,” Rose said, and Sarah Jane shrugged as if to say that was different.

“Can we please have one conversation that doesn't take us off-topic? For once?” Ellie asked, rubbing at her head. “And is someone going to explain this regenerating thing or not?”

“Not,” Hardy said, and she looked over at him.

“Wasn't asking you.”

“I still say they're not,” he told her. He met the others' looks with defiance. “What, you want to go telling the world about that? Knowing that the world includes a child killer in a stasis prison right there? You want to blab secrets of alien physiology to him?”

“We've said a lot of stuff in front of him that we shouldn't,” Ellie reminded him, pretty sure whatever this was, it was his daughter he didn't want hearing about this, not Joe. They had already figured on Joe not saying a word or not being believed if he did, though she wouldn't be surprised if he ended up with no memory, just like Jack had suggested multiple times.

“Doesn't mean we should continue doing it,” he muttered, and she opened her mouth to argue with him only to have light from the outdoors flood the TARDIS as the Doctor came back inside, a strange mix of his long coat and Hardy's typical suit that he seemed to have hundreds of, down to the tie, though whatever he'd done for facial hair was gone already.

“Do your subordinates actually call you Shitface?”

Ellie winced. They did. She didn't, since it wasn't all that imaginative, though wanker and knob weren't that much better. “Um—”

“What did you do?” Hardy asked. “And don't say nothing. What did you do?”

The Doctor just grinned.

* * *

Impersonating his son was not something the Doctor ever thought he'd do. For one, he wasn't supposed to have children—all the Time Lords were dead, Gallifrey was gone, and the Looms, too. For another, he'd always been a runner, and he hadn't done much to raise his children, not that families were the same on Gallifrey anyway. Oh, sure, they had children—enough of them to burn when the planet fell—but it wasn't like Earth. Nuclear family units were outdated and impractical, or so he'd been told.

He had cared about them all, in his way, but he wasn't the sort of man to spend excess amounts of time with them, caught up in domestics, and that was, perhaps, a mistake. He'd done his part, and he hoped they cared about him, as Susan had, but she was the only one he was close to sure of, and even then—was he sure?

Still, nothing to be done about that now. He couldn't even fix that sort of thing with his son, since he wasn't able to keep his memories of his son or his granddaughter.

He shook his head, grumbling to himself as he went inside the Wessex police station. The room seemed to shift when he did, the men behind the desk staring at him.

He grimaced. Perhaps the perception filter wasn't enough, but while he could have accelerated his own hair to grow out to his son's length, he didn't want to. It itched, and he hated things that were itchy. This body was a little too tactile for facial hair. It would drive him insane.

He'd see what happened when he found the right office. He should have paid better attention when Alec was giving him directions, but Daisy had been making faces at him behind her father's back, and he'd been completely distracted. He supposed that was one way of coping with it, since he was a near identical copy of his son in this suit.

He walked down the halls until he found himself in a lab of some sort, which was just what he wanted anyway. No need to ask directions or remember them. Brilliant.

“You know I've got nothing for you,” the other man said. Then he frowned. “Your house? The break in? I haven't gotten any results back yet, and even then, I'm not sure they'll tell us much since you didn't call us right away.”

The Doctor frowned. That didn't sound right at all.

“Not that you called. Was Ellie what did, and you should be thanking her.”

That also didn't feel right, and the Doctor tried to figure out what his son would say to that, probably something about not thanking anyone for anything.

“Though I suppose you wouldn't thank her if your house was on fire,” the other man went on, shaking his head. “Heard they did a number on you in court today. You going to blame that on her?”

“Do you ever shut up?” the Doctor asked, and the man stopped, frowning, not really hiding his own anger. The Doctor hadn't meant to say it quite like that, but he needed to be able to think, and it was almost impossible when he had to shut down his own natural inclination to talk aloud because his thoughts would prove he wasn't Detective Inspector Alec Hardy here to make a request for evidence.

“I told you I don't have results for you.”

“Don't need them,” the Doctor said. K-9 could do much better, and it was past time Sarah Jane introduced him to her granddaughter. Of course, that would mean explaining to Alec what happened to the K-9 he'd known. “Need you to reach out to any office you can think of—Aberdeen, Cardiff, Leeds, Cardiff, Croyden—and see if any other crimes match this one Joe Miller committed.”

“What?”

“You heard me. I want to see if he might have been involved in anything else. He said he came from Cardiff. That would be the best place to start, but anywhere in Britain, anything he might have done, we need it.”

“You really did fuck that trial up, didn't you?” the other man asked. “You know you don't have any authority to do this here—”

“Don't care. This is about keeping a man who killed a child in prison, so get it done,” the Doctor said, thinking he'd done very well imitating his son there. He had to bite back a grin. “Now.”

“It'll take time.”

“Then get started already,” the Doctor said, turning to leave. He was almost out of the room when he heard the man grumbling under his breath, something about Shitface. He should just walk away, he knew that, and Alec might have done, even if he had somewhat advanced hearing as a Time demi-Lord. “Excuse me?”

That got a swallow and a bit of panic. “Um... nothing.”

“Listen, Brian,” the Doctor said, “it is Brian, isn't it? Dirty Brian? Yes, I believe it is. You do not want to go around calling my—me that. Ever. Is that understood?”

Brian glared at him. “Suits you.”

The Doctor returned the glare, even as his brain came to the brilliant conclusion that Dirty Brian should literally be Dirty Brian. All it would take was a few vibrations from the sonic screwdriver, and that lovely bunch of chemicals above his head would fall and cover him in their powder. Harmless, really, though a bit obnoxious to clean.

Perfect, really.

Though there was also the idea of giving his computer some vicious malware that only a dirty person would enjoy, and the Doctor could do both, with Brian none the wiser.

So he did.

He even took a picture. For Daisy.

* * *

“You do realize that delayed us getting the results, don't you? That arsehole never liked me to begin with, and now you've gone and messed about with his computer so he can't properly do his job,” Hardy said, and Rose figured he was working up to a good rant there. “What the bloody hell does it matter what they call me? They don't have to like me if they do their damned jobs.”

“Yeah, but it wouldn't kill you to say good morning and things like that,” Ellie said. “If you were polite once and a while—”

“Don't do polite. Bloody waste of time.”

“Oh, and here I thought you'd claim it was a genetic thing,” Ellie said, shaking her head. “Brian's not that bad a man.”

“Says you. You were willing to go out with him, and that's after he propositioned you while you were still married and before we knew your husband was a damned pedophile.”

“I was not.”

“You asked him out.”

“I did not.”

“You told me you did.”

“I bloody did not,” Ellie protested. “Why would I tell you that? I didn't.”

“You did. You said he'd turned you down.”

“Was I drunk?”

“No, but you do talk too much,” Hardy said, and Rose bit back on her laughter. She could watch them do this for hours. It was better than telly. She loved it. And it was just that much better that they'd do it without seeming to understand that anyone else was in the room. “You know he delayed because of your stunt, and now we're stuck waiting again.”

“Time machine,” the Doctor reminded him, and Rose almost laughed then, shaking her head at how smug he sounded. Most of the time he'd be saying something about the events already being in motion and them having to be a part of things on the slow path or whatever, but not this time. “We're due to hop a few days forward, back to your original timeline. Have to pay a visit to Claire.”

Hardy sighed. He was still angry with the Doctor, that seemed clear, but he wasn't going to fight now, not when this was basically what he wanted. “Fine, then. Let's go.”

“Only if you push the button.”

Hardy blinked. “What?”

“Oh, I want to drive,” Daisy said, rushing over to her grandfather with a grin. “Please?”

Hardy gave the Doctor a long, hard look. “I'm going to make you regenerate.”

“Driving lessons first.”

* * *

“Are you sure you've got the time right?” Rose asked, and the Doctor gave her a wounded look, but she only shrugged. Having heard enough about her grandfather's driving skills from her gran and Rose already, Daisy kind of expected it, but it still hurt a bit.

“I was driving, you know.”

“And you landed the TARDIS much better than he usually does,” her gran told her. “Though you did have a bit of help.”

Her father grunted. Daisy didn't know if he was trying to hide that he liked it or if he really didn't. Sometimes her father was easy to understand, like looking at a book written for babies, but other times, he was more like a textbook in a foreign language.

“Day after we left the Latimers at their house. The second time,” the Doctor promised. “Though we are not presently with them. I've put us back on the beach. I'm afraid we're gong to need rather... mundane transportation for a bit, and that means your car, Sarah Jane.”

“I figured as much,” her gran agreed. “It's not like you have Bessie here, now is it?”

“Bessie?” Miller asked, frowning. She wasn't the only one. That sounded like a cow. What did her grandfather want with a cow?

“My car from back in the days I was trapped on Earth and working with UNIT,” the Doctor answered. “Now there is a thought. Wonder where she is now? Suppose the Brigadier had her put away again. Haven't seen her since Mars invaded.”

“What?”

“Long story. Not one to tell just now,” the Doctor said. “Unfortunately, the presence of more Time Lords—well, that's not necessarily a good thing, so we should move on. And even divide forces some. I was thinking—Daisy, you made rather a friend in Chloe Latimer, right?”

“What? I'm getting left behind? That's not fair.”

“Well, you and K-9,” the Doctor said. “Right, Sarah?”

“Doctor, you really shouldn't—”

“K-9 stopped working decades ago,” her father said. “Not long after Ailie—no. The dog is dead, and it's not—”

“I gave your mother a new one when we met up at school,” the Doctor said, smiling. “Which... she neglected to mention, I see now. Well, that's something to sort out later. Come on, now. Time Lords and companions must be off. Daisy, do you mind, you think, if your gran and K-9 are yours for just a bit?”

“Um... what?”

“Time Lords need companions. Sort of an unwritten universal law. I wonder if the Master would be so insane if he had friends like mine, but that's a debate for another day. I've got Rose for my companion, your father has Ellie, and you get your gran, my best friend. And K-9, too, you lucky thing you. That combination is absolutely wonderful.”

“Wait a minute,” Miller said. “I'm not his bloody companion. I'm not even his assistant or a friend. You are not—”

“Oh, stop wittering,” her father muttered, though Daisy thought he was enjoying that part, at least. She liked seeing the smile, even if it was just the hint of it around his eyes. Still, that was about the only good thing about this.

She turned to her grandfather. “Are you sure we can't just all go in the TARDIS and—”

“You're not old enough to go into that prison, and not a word about perception filters,” her father said. “It's not happening. And we're not arguing about it. This is one you won't win. You know it as well as I do.”

She did. She could always tell those ones, though sometimes she fought him anyway. This didn't really feel like one of those times. “You... you are going to come back, aren't you? This isn't another one of those times when you are going off alone to protect me from seeing you die or something like that, is it?”

“Of course not. You think I'd take Miller along if it was? She's got two boys with a killer for a father, and who'd look after them?”

“You're sure?”

“Yup,” the Doctor said, smiling. “Besides, Time Lords don't die. We regenerate.”


	32. Time for a Visit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Time Lords and their companions visit Claire in prison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why this bit with Claire is so hard to write, but I swear it's practically torture to get words on a page.
> 
> Of course, it doesn't help that I want to do the other episode fix right now to get it over with or that I am also very, very tempted to do a story where Nine meets Hardy and Daisy.

* * *

_“Well, if you really think about it, things could be a lot worse.”_

_“Don't you even start. You're sitting over there trying not to laugh.”_

_“Like I said, it could be worse.”_

_“Pretty soon, it will be. For you.”_

* * *

“So... explain this to me again,” Ellie said, catching Hardy's arm and pulling him back as the Doctor and Rose bounded ahead of them like they were excited to be visiting a prison. Then again, Ellie wouldn't be surprised if the Doctor was. That seemed just the strange sort of thing that he would enjoy. “Time Lords don't die. They regenerate. They change every cell in their body and somehow survive this?”

“Apparently.”

Ellie gave him a look. “I know you say you don't know everything he does, but you saw inside his head, didn't you? You know what that means, don't you?”

“My father has looked like ten—no, eleven—different men. And he will continue to change. Now stop gaping at me. Or do you really want him loose in a prison with a potentially dangerous alien?”

Ellie shook her head. “How did our lives come to this? A few days ago, I thought we'd faced the worst. Joe went free. And now... now there are aliens. He killed someone else, and an alien fed off that. Plus Claire's an alien—or a better liar than we knew—and your father can't die.”

“No, he can.”

“What? I thought he said—”

“There are some things that not even regeneration can fix,” Hardy said. “Or did you miss the part about him being the last of his kind?”

“He's not, though. You're like him.” Ellie stopped. “Wait, does that mean you can change your face? All those times I thought you were dying, and if I'd waited—”

“I'm half,” Hardy reminded her. “And I have no idea. I've had close calls before, but I never changed. Plus, I didn't know I could, so I probably wouldn't have on my own. Not sure how much of it is a mental thing. And no, I am not going to test it. I'd lose Daisy for sure.”

“Only if you didn't tell her,” Ellie said, “and she already knows part of it now anyway.”

Hardy snorted. “You think Tess would let me see my daughter if I had a new face?”

Ellie winced. “No, you're right. She wouldn't.”

He started walking again, this time faster than before, and Ellie jogged after him, trying to keep up. She didn't want to be left behind, since she had her own reasons for wanting to make sure that Claire—or who/whatever she really was stayed locked up. She had been the one Claire pretended to befriend, the one who'd made the mistake of getting pissed with her and ended up spending one of the worst nights of her life with, too. She didn't want to remember that, her failed attempt to get over Joe and the devastation he'd made of their lives.

“Why haven't you freaked out about any of this yet?” Ellie asked, and Hardy looked at her. “Come on. You're half-alien. You attract them like some kind of magnet. You have been through time and altered it, and you might not even die, just change your face. You have to feel something about all of that. I keep expecting anger, but you... you were actually smiling earlier when your father beamed in a robot dog.”

“I grew up with the dog.”

“Right, but there's still—”

“You know what I am, Miller? I'm tired. That's what I am,” he answered. “I'm just so bloody tired.”

* * *

“I know that face,” Rose said. “That's your worried face.”

“Oh?" the Doctor asked, trying to fake a bit of a smile. "Since when do I have a worried face?”

“Since you changed from a gruff Northerner with blue eyes and ears just a tad big to a tall puppy with great hair and a big gob,” she said. He looked at her, and she had to smile back at him. “Not that you didn't have a worried face before, but it's different in each body. Your other worried face tried to pretend it was angry. This worried face pretends to be happy.”

“You think you know me so well.”

“I do, a bit, though probably not as well as I should,” Rose admitted. She'd joked about an age gap, but it wasn't so far from the truth—he'd lived hundreds of years she hadn't, and it could take that almost that long for him to tell her about those years. “It's not like I understood everything about the Time War—not that I blame you for not talking about that—but there's everyone you traveled with before—and you still haven't told me about all of them, not even after I met Sarah Jane. There's parallel universes and what you used to do in them when the Time Lords were still alive. And—well, I suppose there's even... your family. You never mention them. Well... You said Susan a few times, and I get she was close to you—and Romana—but who were they?”

The Doctor grimaced. “I said more about them in the last few days than I have in years. Hundreds of years, I suppose. I... It isn't easy for me to talk about.”

“Yeah, well, you've seen me,” Rose reminded him. “One mention of my dad, and I get a bit weepy.”

The Doctor nodded. He held out a hand to her. “It's different, this time. I saw my family as... weights before. Things that tied me down when I was bent on running. Not all of them, no. Susan, she ran with me. And then I had to run from her...”

“You ran from her?”

“Well, she wouldn't go after her own happiness when she thought I needed her,” the Doctor said. “So, I left. And she was happy for many years.”

Rose nodded. She started to ask what did happen to her after that, why she wasn't happy now—had she died in the Time War? Or was it before then? Should she push about it? She didn't want to hurt him, but maybe she could help if she knew.

“We done with the wittering now?”

Rose frowned, looking back at the others, but Hardy just brushed past her, not waiting for an answer. The Doctor quickly caught up to him, matching his pace and leaving her behind.

“Knob,” Ellie muttered, shaking her head. “I asked him how he felt about all this, and what does he say? That he's _tired._ He's not freaked out or angry, just tired.”

“I think that may be a family trait,” Rose said. Ellie looked at her. “The Doctor likes to evade, too. He says he's 'always all right.' He's lying, and I know it, but sometimes I let him get away with it.”

“Shouldn't even care,” Ellie said. “I don't even like the man.”

Rose shook her head. She didn't believe that for a second. Even though Hardy clearly irritated her and he enjoyed pushing her buttons, Ellie wouldn't have stuck around if she didn't care at least a little. This wasn't about the aliens, either. Ellie had stuck close to Hardy before she knew about any of that, and that was more of a deal breaker than a deal maker.

“We'd better catch up to them,” Rose told her. “I mean, think about it—the Doctor on his own, he gets into all sorts of mischief and trouble—and he calls _me_ jeopardy friendly—but we throw his son into that mix and—”

“Bloody hell,” Ellie said, and they both took off running.

* * *

“You lied to me.”

The Doctor looked at him at Claire's accusation, not the only one to do so. Hardy could feel them all watching him, even Miller who knew better than to trust anything she said.

“Did I now? Don't tell me—you're going to repeat that accusation you made before,” Hardy said, not sure he wanted to deal with that. Not that he figured Rose or his father would believe Claire's lies. They'd never been anything more than cop and suspect, even if she'd tried to make it something else and he'd bent the rules in desperation.

“Well, now, suppose it's true,” Claire said, looking over at the Doctor. “You've got a twin, haven't you? So who says he wasn't the one who did it?”

Hardy shook his head. “Right. So the nine hundred year old alien is the rapist. Very believable.”

“What?” the Doctor demanded.

“Him?” Rose asked, snorting. “He may as well be a monk. Or... that other word, what is it now? Asexual. Yeah. He's more like that. Trust me, I would know. Been with him two years, and never so much as a snog—well, not exactly. Cassandra got a kiss out of him, but that wasn't—”

“Don't,” Hardy said. “There are things that I do not need to know.”

“Tell you what,” Miller said, turning to Rose. “You can tell me. We'll go out for a drink later. Get hammered. Maybe even pick up a bloke or two.”

“You going to pretend to be her friend, then, too?” Claire asked, glaring at her.

“And when, in the entire time we know each other, were you ever honest with me?” Miller asked. “How about calling me his pet? That what passes for friendship for you? Mind you, they called me his companion, and I'm a bit upset by that, but at least that doesn't make me a puppy. Actually, having seen what passes for a dog in his family—”

“Miller,” Hardy interrupted, having no interest in hearing her insult K-9. Even if the model currently with his daughter was not the one he'd grown up with, he still trusted that little machine more than most humans.

“What interests me is that you seem to be holding onto the idea that you're human,” the Doctor said, leaning across the table. “You know you're not. That bond broke down when you turned against your husband.”

“Are you sure she's an alien, Doctor?” Rose asked. “Couldn't she be a copy, something more like... that genetic spatial multiplicity that you mentioned?”

“She could be, but she isn't,” the Doctor said. He sounded regretful, which Hardy supposed he should be, since the Flyboln were apparently a Time Lord creation. “I can see it just looking at her. You sure you can't? It's in the timelines. What do you see when you look at her?”

“A headache,” Hardy answered, and his father looked at him, disappointed and amused at the same time. He did seem to have that effect on the other man. “It's true. She caused nothing but trouble covering up Lisa's murder and using Pippa to do it. She tried to play on my sympathies. Miller over there not only thought I'd fallen for it, she thought I'd slept with her, too.”

“Oi,” the Doctor said. “There are images I did not need, and that has to be one of them. My son and a gaseous imprint. Oh, I'm going to have nightmares.”

Hardy reached over and smacked him. “I didn't do it.”

“It's the principle.”

“Your son?” Claire asked, frowning. “He's older than you. No, you'd have to be brothers. Twins.”

The Doctor shook his head. “No, I'm his father. It's complicated. Timey-whimey. And a lot of other things, actually. I could prove it by naming one planet, but that would sever the last link you have on your humanity, and that would be a problem. A big one.”

“What happens if she loses that?” Miller asked. “Doesn't she just... revert to her normal form and you can... take her back where she belongs?”

“She's a Trojan horse,” Hardy told her, though he was reaching a bit himself. He didn't know everything about every species out there, and his glimpse into his father's memories had not shown him all of the universe, either.

“She's got other little aliens inside her?”

Claire laughed. “Oh, go on. Let's hear some more.”

“It means that if she were to revert to her true form—”

“Don't give her any ideas,” Hardy said, and Claire laughed. Not the friendly, charming laugh she used before when she was trying to be innocent. “That thing does not need encouragement.”

“Oh, so I'm a thing now, am I?” Claire asked, bitterness in her voice. “You didn't think so before, when you were—”

“And don't start that again,” Hardy snapped. “I'd sooner kiss Rose, and she's half my age and might be my mother.”

Claire stared at him. “What?”

“Time travel,” the Doctor said, and she turned to him. He tensed. “Oh, that was definitely the wrong thing to say, wasn't it?”

* * *

“Doctor,” Rose began, reaching for his arm. He was aware of her need for comfort and understanding, but this was not the time for that. He couldn't explain, and comfort would be that much more difficult without the explanation. “What—”

Claire stood, the smile on her face the sort a deranged megalomaniac would use.

“Miller, Rose, go. Run, get out of here. Now.”

The Doctor saw them hesitate, but he shook his head. “Go. Alec's right. Go. You need to get out of here right now.”

“Hold on. She's in prison. She's—”

“No time for wittering,” Alec said, giving Ellie a shove. “Go on. You and Rose are human. You won't survive it.”

“I know you think you can because you're Time Lords and your people created the Flyboln, but you don't know that,” Ellie said, and Rose looked just as worried thanks to her. Damn it, sometimes companions really were too brilliant for their own good. “Or do you? You think you can stop her because your people... made her?”

The Doctor wished that were the case. That would make things very simple. Just shut Claire off like a switch. Only she wasn't a switch. She was a time bomb, and she was about to go off.

“We have a respiratory bypass,” the Doctor told them. “It'll buy us time. That is something neither of you have, and it is not up for debate. Go. Now.”

Alec looked at him. “That bypass—it doesn't actually—”

“Bloody hell,” Ellie said, and everyone's eyes were back on Claire. 

Her human shape fell away, separating into dust—atoms, really—but they'd see it as dust, since she remained visible in her gaseous form. She rose as a cloud in the air, darkening the room as it spread and blocked all of the lights.

“And that would be why you were supposed to run.”

“You can stop her, right?” Rose asked. “Switch your settings on the sonic screwdriver and disrupt the field keeping her together or something.”

“Oh, that would be nice,” the Doctor said, “but she's not that easily dispersed. Remember I said that only one Flyboln was needed to take out a planet?”

Alec hadn't been there for that, but he nodded grimly. “That cloud will keep expanding until everyone on Earth is dead.”


	33. Time for A (Bad) Idea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Time Lords and their companions work on a plan to defeat the Flyboln only to have things go wrong in the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I think I have a couple paths to take here, and I admit, the idea of doing the Nine meets Hardy piece was more enticing, but I did manage to get this chapter where I intended it to end, more or less.
> 
> I swear, after a bit more, I will explain everything. It just needs a bit first, and that is why I have the last scene going as it does.

* * *

_“Tell me the truth. Did you know any of this was going to happen?”_

_“No. I swear to you, I didn't. I really didn't. I mean, maybe there was some part of me that... wanted it, but it's not like I knew every detail. Don't think I wanted to hurt anyone. That's not what it was. I didn't set out to—I was trying to save people. You have to understand that.”_

_“Do I?”_

_“Please. You don't understand.”_

_“Oh, I understand plenty. I've been used by time itself, and who else gets to say that? Not many people, I suppose, but that still doesn't make it right. You know it doesn't.”_

_“And you want an apology?”_

_“Don't be stupid. That would never be enough.”_

* * *

Ellie felt like giving someone or something the beating she'd given Joe, angry and frustrated as she was. She knew that the Doctor hadn't actually intended to provoke Claire into dropping her human form for what she was now, but that didn't mean that he hadn't done it. Or had Hardy done it? He certainly hadn't helped keep Claire calm.

And the Time Lords had created these things, these Flyboln, so someone ought to kick their arse for that. Each and every one of them, except that they were already dead, leaving only the Doctor and his hybrid son alive.

“Okay, but your people _made_ her, right?” Ellie asked, turning to the Doctor. “You had to have some kind of plan of what to do if you didn't want her killing an entire planet.”

“Not exactly. I mean, that was the whole point of the Flyboln. They went in, imprinted, and when they were no longer needed to gather intelligence, they were activated, and the planet was rendered... harmless,” the Doctor said. Ellie stared at him, trying to make sense of his attitude. “You have to understand—the Time War was not... the kind of war you're used to. There was no Geneva convention. There was no limit to what either side was willing to do. Lesser worlds fought and died and were resurrected to die all over again. This happened multiple times. And then there were other things... the Skaro Degradations, the Horde of Travesties, the Nightmare Child, the Could-have-been King with his army of Meanwhiles and Never-weres...”

“He had no choice but to kill his own people to stop it,” Hardy said, and Ellie gagged as she looked over at him. “It was the only way. You, me, everyone on this world and millions of others would not exist now if he hadn't. The war wouldn't have stopped until all the Daleks were dead. Or all the Time Lords. This way, they all died at once.”

“Not all of them,” the Doctor said, his voice full of pain and anguish. “The Daleks always seem to survive. And there's me. Maybe if I hadn't—maybe it would have—”

“Don't say that,” Rose said, reaching for his hand. “You deserve to live. You saved so many lives that day. You do it every day. And if you weren't still alive, there'd be no Alec. Or Daisy. And we all love Daisy, right?”

Ellie had to nod, even though she didn't know the girl very well. She hadn't seen anything to dislike in Hardy's daughter. “Right, but... um, about Claire?”

“She's a gaseous form,” Hardy said. “There should be some way of neutralizing whatever poison she is or disrupting its field—it would take more than a sonic screwdriver to do it, but it can be done.”

“Theoretically, though we're going to need a lot more equipment than we have here at the moment and—why didn't you run? I told you to run.”

“Um, Doctor,” Rose said, tugging on his jacket. “Look.”

He did, and Ellie did, seeing the cloud that had been Claire was now mostly gone, the tail end of it disappearing into the vent on the other side of the room.

“Oh.”

“She's gone,” Ellie said, choking a bit on the words. “Claire's an alien who turned into gas, and she just left in the bloody vent.”

“Yes, she did.”

“Well, now what?”

“Wait, Doctor,” Rose began, “why did she leave? She could have killed all of us right here. That's what she's supposed to do, isn't it? But she didn't. She didn't kill any of us. She left. Why would she do that?”

“You always ask the best questions,” the Doctor told her, and she smiled at him. “Though I really wish I had an answer to that.”

“I think I do,” Hardy said, looking at Ellie.

“Lee Ashworth,” Ellie said. “She's gone after her husband.”

* * *

“So we have to go stop an out of control psychotic alien gas cloud from killing a prison filled with men who've killed and done god knows what else, and we don't know how we're going to do that.”

“Sums it up nicely, Miller,” Hardy said, and she glared at him. Rose tried not to laugh. It wasn't all that funny. She knew that. She wasn't sure how they'd stop Claire, not if the Time Lords had actually created her. They were good at what they did, unfortunately, and that was why the Doctor had been forced to stop them as much as the Daleks.

“Knob,” Ellie muttered, and Hardy ignored her, walking along with the Doctor, who was quiet in a way that worried Rose. She only knew this version of him to be quiet when things were very, very bad or when he was very, very angry, which was almost the same thing. “Can we actually stop her? And should we even be calling that her since she's now a gas cloud?”

“The name is what worries you?” the Doctor asked, frowning.

“Not all of us are so rude as to not care what gender things are.”

“No, you're just so bent on categories you can't see past them sometimes,” the Doctor countered. “There are some things you don't understand, some that you plain refuse to, and all because you won't let go of your human definitions of male and female, black and white, right and wrong—”

“Lecture later,” Hardy snapped. “Right now we have more important things to worry about than who the hell is being rude.”

“Excellent point,” the Doctor said. “Though I'm actually a bit surprised. I've seen your mind. All that anger about those killers—and Lee Ashworth in particular—and you're still willing to fight to save him, are you?”

“It's not about Lee Ashworth, is it?” Hardy countered. “I'm not the sort of policeman, hardened as I might be, that thinks all criminals should burn for their crimes. Time they serve is the court's business, not mine. I don't set that. I don't always agree with it, but that doesn't mean I want every man who's ever been nicked to die, either.”

“You said you wanted me angry,” Ellie reminded him. “You wanted me to stoke it, get as angry as you were when we confronted Claire and Lee. If you didn't want—”

“Anger is one thing,” Hardy said. “Murder is another. Even killing in defense leaves scars on you that you can't begin to understand until you're there, trying to live with what you've done. A life is a life, even if the one living it was a monster.”

Rose frowned. “Wait. You're talking like—oh, God. Have you killed someone?”

Hardy ignored her, turning to his father instead. “They'd have wanted this to be something that most species weren't able to overcome in time, since the point was to wipe out a planet without a fight, but for anyone to be a threat to the Time Lords, they'd be able to counter most basic gaseous threats. Burn the air, disrupt the field, counter with an agent that renders it inert—”

“Bloody hell. You sound like him.”

“Still Scottish,” Hardy reminded her, letting his accent thicken. “Bollocks. Am I going to be mistaken for you every damn time I think aloud?”

The Doctor shrugged. “Don't know. It was brilliant, though. All of it. You were just... brilliant.”

“Yeah, yeah, be a proud papa later, okay?” Rose said, getting a glare from both of them. “Let's just... If those usual things aren't going to work, what will?”

“Wait, can you get Claire to _reimprint?”_ Ellie asked, rubbing her head. “Is that even a thing? Can these Flyboln take two imprints?”

“Generally speaking, no,” the Doctor admitted. “And they definitely cannot be two at the same time, but you could be on to something there. Trouble is, Flyboln were created with the ability to mimic Time Lords blocked. Too complex, really. And Daleks, too. Too dangerous. Humans were easy enough. Simple enough, even.”

“What about the pterodactyl?”

“What, you think I should sacrifice my granddaughter's favorite creature to a gaseous cloud?”

Rose wanted to smack him. “The imprint doesn't actually die, though. It's not like Gwen did, and she was apparently Claire's template. The pterodactyl would be fine.”

“If it was a species that the Flyboln would believe it needed to copy. The thing is, they're programmed to seek out the dominant species and mimic it,” the Doctor explained. “If not for that, you'd see them in something more common or more populous, like dogs or even bacteria.”

“Dolphins.”

Everyone looked over at Hardy. He shrugged. “Supposedly more advanced than humans.”

“What?”

“So long and thanks for all the fish,” the Doctor said, laughing. “Oh, I love this. Alec, you are absolutely wonderful.”

“You're only saying that because you weren't around when I was growing up,” the other man said. “If we were going to get Claire to reimprint as something else, we'd have to get her to believe that was the dominant species on Earth.”

“Yes, and unfortunately, we can't get her in the TARDIS. She'd go critical before that happened,” the Doctor said. “Still, I like this plan, if we can just get over that little hurdle.”

“And in the meantime, a whole prison full of male prisoners is going to die,” Ellie reminded him, and he grimaced.

Rose touched his arm, stopping him before he could tell Ellie that they were likely already dead, depending on how fast that gas cloud could travel. They were just lucky it wasn't killing everything in its path and wanted a very specific kind of revenge.

“What about that shadow?”

“The one on Joe?” Ellie asked. “You think that Claire would copy that?”

“Every human has a shadow, and that thing is trying to find a way to control humans, right? Why wouldn't she think it was the dominant species?”

“Again,” the Doctor said, beaming at them. “Brilliant.”

* * *

“And we've landed. Normally wouldn't take the TARDIS for a trip like that, but we've got a bit of a time crunch on our hands, so _allons-y,”_ the Doctor said, aware of his son glaring at him. He hadn't used the name that his son disliked so much this time, even though it had some nice alliteration to go along with the Doctor's favorite phrase. Well, maybe not his favorite phrase. He liked others, too, liked them quite a lot.

“Not to mention we couldn't risk the shadow escaping if we'd gone without the containment field,” Hardy said, and Ellie frowned at him. “Your husband has been in a containment field for most of his time on the TARDIS. The bindings on the railings were for show, more or less.”

“Since when does the TARDIS have a containment field in the control room?” Rose asked, and the Doctor winced.

“Um, since I was almost taken over by an evil entity or two?” the Doctor asked. “Long story. Bad story. Not worth telling. Come on. We have to get that shadow into the prison and convince the Flyboln to copy it, which is not going to be a simple matter at all. Not that it would be much easier to disperse her—though this Flyboln is very stubborn about holding onto her humanity. Never seen one do that for as long as she has.”

“Did you ever watch one of them do this before?” Rose asked, and the Doctor really wished he hadn't left it open for her to ask that. He didn't want to answer. Yes, he'd seen it. He'd watched a world die, unable to stop it. He'd thought he could help the people of that planet, had wanted to undo damage from the Time War, and instead, he'd killed them all just by being what he was—a Time Lord.

“Let's just focus on our plan,” the Doctor said. He turned to Ellie. “Would you like to do the honors of escorting your husband? I think he'll behave himself properly if you do.”

“I doubt that,” she said, “but I'll do it. He's still my responsibility until we get him behind bars again for good.”

“You planning on divorcing him?” Rose asked, and the Doctor frowned at her. Ellie hesitated in gathering Joe up, and that was not something they could do. No more delays. Not now. Gaseous being acting in unpredictable manners out there. Needed to be stopped. Now.

“Rose,” the Doctor said, pulling her toward the door. “We're going to need a bit more than Joe to convince the Flyboln.”

“Wait, you want me to pretend my shadow is controlling me?”

“You don't think you can?” the Doctor asked, frowning, and she rolled her eyes at him. “Or is this your way of saying my plan sucks?”

“It's our plan,” she said. “We all came up with parts of it, so it's ours, not just yours. And yeah, it is a bit... bad, not so great as some others, but what else do we do? Neither of you said it, but I'm pretty sure you both know she'd counter anything we did to the air—the flames or the dispersal or the other thing—and make herself even more dangerous than she is now. She's not killing anyone even though she could, but if we attacked her like that, she'd kill us all and we wouldn't be able to stop her.”

“Kind of, yes,” the Doctor agreed. “Okay, yes. She very likely could, and since her behavior has been a little counter to the typical Flyboln, this is about the best plan we could have. And if it works, I can give her a second chance. I might even be able to take her back to her planet again.”

“Even though she had a hand in killing Pippa?” Ellie asked, grimacing.

The Doctor nodded. “Leaving her here is a risk we can't take. She could revert again, and that assumes that we manage to get her back into another form. So drag him along. We've got work to do here.”

* * *

“Detective Inspector Hardy?”

The guard had asked the question of the Doctor, but Hardy turned to answer it anyway, waving the others on. They didn't have much time if they were going to get Claire back to a manageable form, and he still wasn't sure about this plan. None of them were. He didn't mind the possibility of sacrificing Joe Miller to the gas, didn't mind losing Lee Ashworth or Ricky Gillespie, but they weren't the only prisoners here, and maybe some of them weren't of the same ilk. Maybe they were. Still, the guards were basically innocent.

They hadn't been convicted of any crimes or even arrested for them, so far as he knew, so that made them as close to innocent as it got under the circumstances. They had to attempt to keep them alive, even if they didn't bother to do it for the prisoners.

And they would, since his father wasn't a monster and he was working with two emotional humans at the moment.

“What is it?” he asked the guard. “Come on, out with it. I don't have time for this.”

“You're—but who was—”

“He's not important, and you will forget he was ever here. I'm Hardy, not him,” he said. They didn't look _that_ much alike. Well, no, they did. He was starting to think perhaps he had come about through some sort of asexual reproduction because there was no sign of anyone but the Doctor in him. “What do you want?”

“Um... I'm supposed to give you this,” the guard said, and Hardy frowned as he took the envelope from him, opening it and reading the words on the near blank page inside.

“This a joke?”

“No, it's not. I was told to give it to you. It was important and official.”

 _My arse it was,_ Hardy thought, grumbling to himself. He crumpled the paper in his hand and walked away from the guard, back toward the outer doors. Maybe this was the wrong choice, maybe it was a prank. He didn't care. He was too damned sick of conflicting timelines to do much fighting against them, and who was to say that this note didn't mean their plan wasn't about to go very, very wrong in there?

He pushed the door open and stepped out into the sunlight.

“You bloody well better not be wasting my time,” Hardy said, and the other man came around the pillar, giving him a grin. “And you can stop that now, Harkness. We left you behind in the past. Why the hell aren't you there? And what kind of a message is that?”

“Meet me outside? Pretty clear if you ask me,” Jack said, still smiling. “And I need your father's help, apparently. This thing won't stop.”

He held up his wrist, showing off the vortex manipulator. Hardy held himself in place, refusing to back away in fear.

“I had just sat down with my team for a nice bit of retcon, and then I ended up here,” Jack went on. “I didn't know when you'd show back up, or if he would have left you alone by now or not. And leaving messages for him is a bit awkward. No one wants to believe that it's just the Doctor, and they might give it to anyone. Not good when I definitely need one of you.”

Hardy rolled his eyes. “We're in the middle of dealing with a Flyboln, and I do not have time for this. You and that thing are just going to have to wait.”

“Look, I know you don't want anything to do with me, but think about it—I was about to forget, but I can't because I got pulled out of my time _again._ I came here, to this exact time and place where you are to get my message. I don't know about you, but I'm not so sure this is random.”

“You think someone tampered with your device to make all this happen?”

“Yes. Makes sense, doesn't it?”

Hardy put a hand to his head as it started to throb. “Possibly.”

“Not possibly. This is a definite thing, and I think it's about you,” Jack said. “It went off first to take me to you. Then it took you to Canary Wharf and then the moon. Now it brought me back to you.”

“Simple solution. Destroy it.”

“No,” Jack said immediately. “It's not that simple. I tried to tell you before about the Master. I wasn't done. I think I have to get you to stop us from ever finding him again.”

Hardy shook his head. “I am not responsible for fixing every problem in the universe or the timelines. That's not how it works.”

“You saved Rose.”

“Nothing major happened the second time,” Hardy told him. “And you don't know what damage I did by saving Rose or being on that moon.”

“Fine. Just point me to the Flyboln. I'll help you with it and get your father to fix this when he's done saving the world.”

Hardy turned back to go inside, and the other man jogged up to reach him. Jack touched his arm, stopping him from grabbing the door handle.

“One more thing.”

“Oh, this had better be pretty damned important,” Hardy said, but whatever the other man was going to say was lost as the universe shifted around them and they were no longer on Earth.


	34. Time for a Library

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hardy and Jack land right in the thick of things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had the idea for this section weeks back, not long after starting this story. I kept telling myself no, I wasn't doing it, but I think it has to happen. I've tried to talk myself out of it enough and lost that I'm going ahead now.
> 
> It's a lot longer than I thought it would be, and it will need a bit more to wrap it up, but I didn't like the other ways of splitting it, so it's just long.
> 
> And it being so long means I won't get to update the side story with Nine until later, but I will.

* * *

_“That's it, then. That is everything. It's done, over, finished. Kaput.” That got a sigh and a shake of the head. “Nothing lasts forever. Everything ends.”_

_“Yes, but this is a choice. This end is a choice, and you know that it doesn't have to happen.”_

_“And you know that it does.”_

* * *

Hardy dropped to his knees, body shaking as it tried to get itself under control. His chest was tight with pain, his lungs struggling to get air like a damned episode of his heart failing. He could feel them both, though, and they were hammering away like they would burst.

He was never going near a vortex manipulator again. Ever. “Where are we?”

“Lost.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Hardy muttered, wishing he felt strong enough to smack Harkness for that one. Bloody twat. This was all his fault anyway. If he hadn't grabbed Hardy, he'd still be at the prison. Maybe they were about to die from a Flyboln, but he almost thought he'd prefer it over this. “That was helpful.”

“Sometimes a simple answer is the best one, and the simple answer here is that we're lost,” Jack told him. He held out a hand, and Hardy almost didn't take it, not wanting to accept help from the man who'd gotten them both into this mess.

“Aye, simple,” Hardy said, getting to his feet with Jack's help, “and yet not because this shouldn't be possible. That thing isn't meant to take off on its own. It requires precise input of time and position in the galaxy otherwise we end up as fragments in space scattered across the universe. Only we didn't. We're here, wherever the bloody hell here is.”

“Well, it has some very nice natural lighting. And a lot of books,” Jack said, picking one off a stack and looking at it with a frown. “Hmm. Fifty-first century revival. Wait, are we in the library?”

“A library. Great. Very helpful.”

“Not just any library, Alec,” Jack said, leaning over with a bit of a leer as he spoke. _“The_ Library. Biggest in the universe. Whole planet just devoted to books with a central computer at the core. Data index. It was all the rage for a while.”

“Bloody fantastic. That vortex manipulator of yours abducts me again, and we end up in a library. What the hell for?”

“You're all about the laughs,” Jack told him, and Hardy glared at him. “Still, this is a little weird. Too quiet, even for a library.”

Hardy grunted, adjusting a panel on the desk and sending light across the floor. He frowned at the shadow that seemed to move _out_ of its path as he did. Jack walked to the edge of the newly lit area, frowning.

“I don't like this,” he said, and a second later, they were both backing up as a hole appeared in the wall. “Oh, that makes me miss that sonic blaster your father took from me.”

“Okay, we've got a clear spot,” a woman shouted, giving orders to the others. “In, in, in! Right in the center. In the middle of the light, quickly. Don't let your shadows cross. Doctor?”

Rushing over to the edge of the light, the Doctor knelt down and started pointing his screwdriver into the dark, using some kind of scan. “I'm doing it.”

“There's no lights here,” the woman went on, looking up at the same sunlight that Jack had pointed out a moment ago. “Sunset's coming. We can't stay long. Have you found a live one?”

“Maybe. It's getting harder to tell,” the Doctor said, giving his screwdriver a few good whacks with his hand. “What's wrong with you?”

“We're going to need a chicken leg,” the woman said, and Jack turned to Hardy, mouthing the words at him with a questioning look. Hardy glared back, tempted to smack him. “Who's got a chicken leg?”

One of the men dug something out of his suit and passed it to her. She thanked him and threw it at the shadow. It turned to bone before hitting the ground. Jack tensed, and Hardy swore under his breath.

“Okay. Okay, we've got a hot one. Watch your feet.”

“They won't attack until there's enough of them,” the Doctor said, moving across the room to check another shadow. “But they've got our scent now. They're coming.”

“They?” Jack whispered, and Hardy pointed to the shadow. The other man frowned, not understanding.

“Who is he?” the man with the chicken leg asked. “You haven't even told us. You just expect us to trust him?”

“He's the Doctor.”

The other man did not sound impressed. “And who is the Doctor?”

“The only story you'll ever tell, if you survive him.”

Hardy snorted, shaking his head as Jack frowned. What use were any of these people? They couldn't even enter a room properly. The others, all sitting about and letting the Doctor do all the work while none of them even seemed to notice that Hardy and Jack were standing behind them.

Wait. Were they in some kind of perception filter? What the hell? Since when? Hardy didn't remember putting one on—damn it. He never took the last one off, and he was blocking their view of Jack, at least from here.

“You say he's your friend,” the other woman said, “but he doesn't even know who you are.”

“Listen, all you need to know is this. I'd trust that man to the end of the universe. And actually, we've been.”

Jack frowned. “She wasn't there. I'd remember her.”

“God, you're disgusting.”

“He doesn't act like he trusts you,” the other woman said, and that seemed to upset the first one.

“Yeah, there's a tiny problem. He hasn't met me yet,” she almost snapped, going over to the Doctor to talk to him. It quickly became an argument, one that Hardy found rather unsettling.

“So, some time in the future, I just _give_ you my screwdriver.”

“Yeah.”

The Doctor frowned at her. “Why would I do that?”

“That's a good question,” Jack said, nudging Hardy in the side. He glared back at him. “You didn't get one yet, did you? So why'd he give _her_ one? Hey, you think there's a chance _that's_ your mother?”

Irritated, Hardy gave him a shove, knocking him forward into the others and interrupting the spat happening across the room. He didn't care who his mother was—he had a good one in Sarah Jane, and he didn't need another. He wasn't sure he wanted to meet any more potential candidates, either.

“You bastard,” Jack said, turning back to him, and Hardy shrugged in return. Could have been worse. He was pretty sure Jack would survive the Vashta Nerada, and he hadn't even pushed him into the shadow, just the light.

“Jack?” the Doctor asked. “What are you doing here? How did you get here? This is—”

“Something must have gone very wrong for you to risk crossing your own timeline,” the woman said, crossing toward him. Hardy almost backed into the shadow himself. “Though I think I'm relieved. You know me now, don't you?”

She didn't give him a chance to respond before embracing him. “I'm glad you're here.”

“I'm bloody well not. Get off of me, woman,” Hardy said, pushing away from her. She stared at him in disbelief, and he crossed to his father's side, aware of everyone watching him. “Do you spread that soppiness to your companions like some sort of virus, is that it?”

“She's not my companion,” his father said, shaking his head. “Donna is, at the moment. She's in a bit of trouble, actually. I tried to send her to the TARDIS, but something went wrong in the teleport. Need to sort that, but we're also being hunted—”

“Vashta Nerada.”

“Yes. Which is why we are stuck here at the moment,” the Doctor said. “Only if you were me, you'd know all that, wouldn't you?”

“Depending on the timeline,” Hardy said, putting a hand to his head. “Donna was with you? I thought she was helping build some business.”

“Oh, she was. Did brilliantly, actually. Looks to be an instant sensation, but even cutthroat businesswomen need a day off. She says, 'oi, spaceman, I want a day at a beach and not just any beach, a deserted alien beach,' and don't you know it, I end up on a trip to the beach. Not sure how that happened, but I guess I wasn't in the mood to switch bodies. Still, got sent off course. TARDIS. She does that.”

“She puts you where you need to be.”

“Exactly,” the Doctor said, smiling. “Except... this... we've got Vashta Nerada hunting us, you show up with Jack, of all people—”

“Hey—”

“And my screwdriver's not working,” the Doctor went on, shaking his head. “Know what's interesting about my screwdriver? Very hard to interfere with. Practically nothing's strong enough. Well, some hairdryers, but I'm working on that. So there is a very strong signal coming from somewhere, and it wasn't there before. So what's new? What's changed?” 

“Besides those two appearing out of nowhere?”

“And they'd block a screwdriver?” the Doctor asked, shaking his head at them in apparent despair. He'd found himself some real geniuses this time around. How did he always end up saving the world for morons, anyway? “Come on. What's new? What's different?”

“I don't know. Nothing,” the man with the chicken said. Then he shook his head. “It's getting dark?”

“It's a screwdriver. It works in the dark,” the Doctor said, more irritated than before. “Moon rise. Tell me about the moon. What's there?”

“It's not real,” the other man answered. “It was built as part of the Library. It's just a Doctor Moon.”

Jack frowned. “What's a Doctor Moon?”

“A virus checker. It supports and maintains the main computer at the core of the planet.”

“And it's still active. It's signaling,” the Doctor said, holding up his screwdriver. “Look. Someone somewhere in this library is alive and communicating with the moon. Or, possibly alive and drying their hair. No, the signal is definitely coming from the moon. I'm blocking it, but it's trying to break through.”

A shadowy image of a woman appeared. The Doctor looked up at it. “Donna.”

As soon as he spoke, she was gone again, and the Doctor's face showed too much. He looked anguished, the same way he did when he lost someone. That was one expression Hardy knew well. He saw it every time he said goodbye to him.

“That was her,” the woman said. “That was your friend. Can you get her back? What was that?”

“Hold on, hold on, hold on,” the Doctor said, using the screwdriver again. “I'm trying to find the wavelength. Argh, I'm being blocked.”

“Professor?”

A professor. So the woman giving orders was a professor. Great.

“Just a moment.”

“It's important,” the other woman insisted. “I have two shadows.”

“Damn it.”

* * *

“Professor, go ahead,” the Doctor ordered the woman with the curls as they all ran, including poor Anita who had two shadows. Jack might not have been around from the beginning, and he wasn't even part Time Lord, but he knew that was not going to end well. He wanted to help, but if the Doctor and his son had no solution to this thing, he didn't think she'd make it. “Find a safe spot.”

“You can't stay behind,” Jack told him, not the only one to disagree with that decision. “We all have to run.”

“I'll be with you,” the Doctor said, gesturing to his son, who rolled his eyes but didn't bother to correct him. Not that Jack blamed him. Now wasn't really the time to try and explain that one, was it?

“It's a carnivorous swarm in a suit,” the professor said. “You can't reason with it.”

The Doctor waved her on, ignoring her concerns. “Five minutes.”

She shook her head. “Other Dave, stay with him. Pull him out when he's too stupid to live. Two minutes, Doctor.”

“Go on,” Jack told him. “Follow her. I can get him out of here when it's time.”

“We both can,” Alec said, but Jack shook his head, pulling off the vortex manipulator and holding it out to him. “I'm not touching that. I told you that already.”

Jack rolled his eyes as the doors behind him opened and the skeleton asked who turned out the lights. He ignored it as he went over to Alec's side. He leaned into his ear. “You still have a daughter to go back to. Take it, and go.”

“And if he dies?” 

“I'll keep him alive,” Jack promised. “Even if I have to die to do it. Now go. You, Dave, you go with him, get him back to the others. I've got this, promise.”

Alec did go, and Jack was relieved, because he was starting to think that the Doctor's son was far more important than they knew. It wasn't just about him keeping the Doctor from his loneliness and probable insanity. He was almost certain that the vortex manipulator had activated to take Jack to Alec, and it wanted _him_ in these places and times. Jack wasn't sure why, but he didn't think he was wrong about it, either.

“Hey, who turned out the lights?”

“You hear that?” the Doctor asked, talking to the Vashta Nerada. “Those words? That is the very last thought of the man who wore that suit before you climbed inside and stripped his flesh. That's a man's soul trapped inside a neural relay, going round and round forever. Now, if you don't have the decency to let him go, how about this? Use him. Talk to me. It's easy. Neural relay. Just point and think. Use him, talk to me.”

“Hey, who turned out the lights?”

“The Vashta Nerada live on all the worlds in this system, but you hunt in forests,” the Doctor continued to push. “What are you doing in a library?”

“We should go. Doctor,” Dave said, and Jack turned back to him with a frown. Why had he stayed? He shouldn't have stayed. Jack had this.

“In a minute,” the Doctor told him. “You came to the library to hunt. Why? Just tell me why?”

“We did not.” 

“Oh, hello,” the Doctor said, and Jack thought that Dave over there wanted to wet his pants if he hadn't already. Jack found it both impressive and creepy all at the same time.

“We did not.”

“Take it easy, you'll get the hang of it,” the Doctor encouraged, though why he was trying to push that thing to talk—to get smarter—was beyond Jack. They didn't need something that killed that fast to have brains as well. “Did not what?”

“We did not come here.”

“Well, of course you did. Of course you came here.”

“We come from here.”

The Doctor frowned. “From here?”

“We hatched here.”

“But you hatch from trees,” the Doctor said, not understanding, and since he didn't, neither did Jack. “From spores in trees.”

“These are our forests.”

“You're nowhere near a forest,” Jack said. It didn't take a genius to know that, either. He didn't see why something that hunted in a forest would be in a library. 

The Doctor nodded “Look around you.”

“These are our forests.”

“You're not in a forest,” the Doctor said, though why he was still trying to argue with a swarm, that Jack really couldn't say, except that he was actually almost making progress. This was both good and bad. “You're in a library. There are no trees in a... library.”

“The books,” Jack said, getting a nod from the Doctor.

“We should go, Doctor.”

“Books,” the Doctor said. “You came in the books. Microspores in a million, million books. The forests of the Vashta Nerada, pulped and printed and bound. A million, million books, hatching shadows.”

“We have other problems,” Jack said, looking over at Dave. “Damn it, I should have made him leave. They would have come after me.”

“We should go, Doctor.”

“Oh, Dave,” the Doctor said, wincing. “I'm so sorry.”

“Not as sorry as I am,” Jack said, looking at the skeleton. He should have been the one to be the bait, the distraction, the one that kept the Doctor alive. “You should go. I'll keep them busy.”

“You don't have to do that,” the Doctor said. “Thing about me, I'm stupid. I talk too much. Always babbling on. This gob doesn't stop for anything. Want to know the only reason I'm still alive? Always stay near the door.”

The Doctor opened a trapdoor with his sonic screwdriver and dropped down through it.

Jack gave the opening a glance and grimaced. He didn't think he was going to make it in time.

And he also thought this was really going to hurt.

* * *

“You know, it's funny, I keep wishing the Doctor was here,” the professor said, scanning the shadows with her screwdriver. Hardy gave her another look, shaking his head and regretting letting Jack stay back with his father. Logically, he understood that the fixed point had a better chance of surviving and keeping his father alive, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't rather be there than here.

“The Doctor is here, isn't he?” the other woman said, looking over at Hardy, and he considered explaining it, but why? He'd just have to do it again, and he was sick of it already. “And the other one—he is coming back, right?” 

“You know when you see a photograph of someone you know, but it's from years before you knew them, and it's like they're not quite finished. They're not done yet. Well, yes, the Doctor's here. He came when I called, just like he always does,” the professor went on, stopping to look at Hardy before turning back to her friend. “Not my Doctor. Now my Doctor, I've seen whole armies turn and run away. And he'd just swagger off back to his TARDIS and open the doors with a snap of his fingers. The Doctor in the TARDIS. Next stop, everywhere.”

“Oh, get over yourself,” Hardy grumbled. “Do you even know how you sound? Because from where I stand, it's obnoxious and ridiculous. You do realize he's already there. He is the Oncoming Storm. People still fear him and turn with the mention of his name. And I've seen him open the doors to the TARDIS with a clap and a little dance. Mind you, he was showing off, but better that than the prat you just described.”

She turned, frowning. “You're talking about him like he's not you. I see years on you. Lines and wrinkles. You're older than he is, and yet—no, I need to get a good look at you, a better one.”

Hardy backed into a post with curse, and she caught him, putting her hands on his face and looking into his eyes.

“How is this possible?” she asked. “Your eyes are even younger than his, but you look so much older, and even regeneration doesn't explain that.”

“Why is everyone else so damned thick?” Hardy muttered. Even his father was half the time. Everyone assumed that he had to be the Doctor. Not a one seemed to bring up the concept of family. This one who claimed to know him must know of the War and the death of the Time Lords, so she almost made sense, but that still didn't mean he couldn't be family. “Should we try a hint or do I have to spell it out for you?”

“How about kissing it out?” Jack called from the stairs. “Tension in this room is pretty thick. I'll volunteer for the kissing if everyone else is shy.”

“Please tell me he got eaten at least once,” Hardy said, looking at his father.

The professor frowned. “Who are you? You can't be the Doctor. You're too... vicious.”

“You just said something that implied otherwise,” Hardy told her, reaching up to pull her hands off his face. “People don't fear things without reasons. You want armies to turn in fear? Then you get a monster.”

“You're saying I become a monster in the future?” the Doctor asked, frowning. “No. I mean, I've been one, but I changed. I don't ever want to go back to what I was after the War. That's not—”

“She's blowing smoke up your arse,” Hardy said, annoyed. “Stop falling for it.”

“No one said I had,” the Doctor said, and Hardy snorted. “By the way, what is with the accent? A way to tell us apart aside from the facial hair, which, by the way, I'd rethink that one—”

“I swear, I am going to end up making you regenerate if you keep doing this every time we cross paths,” Hardy snapped, frustrated. He shook his head. “I'm _not_ you. I'm your son.”

“My what?”

“Ooh, this is fun,” Jack said, grinning. He came over and nudged Hardy with his elbow. “He really does this every time you meet him?”

“Just wait,” Hardy said. “There's more.”

“But that's impossible,” the Doctor said. “All the Time Lords are dead. Gallifrey is gone. You can't exist. You're impossible.”

“Not from where I'm sitting, sweetie.”

The Doctor swallowed, looking a bit concerned as he turned away from the professor. “Um... Actually, it still is. Genetically incompatible.”

“I think we have proof that's not true.”

Hardy grimaced. “I think I'm going to go let that shadow eat me.”

“I wouldn't recommend it,” Jack said, shuddering. Hardy looked at him. “Yeah. Well, I have died in worse ways, but I can't think of many at the moment.”

“And Other Dave?” the woman with her visor blocked asked. “He's—oh, God, he's dead, too. If they took him—both of them—wait, that's not possible. No. Maybe Dave's not dead because he's not dead?”

“Sorry,” Jack told her. “I... um... don't stay dead.”

She made a noise almost like a whimper. “Why haven't they gotten me yet?”

“I don't know,” the Doctor admitted. “Maybe tinting your visor's making a difference. Lots of strange things going on at the moment, to be honest. Impossible ones.”

“No one's ever going to see my face again.”

“Hey, I'll kiss you right here, right now,” Jack said, going to her side and standing in front of her, taking hold of her hands. “I'm willing to risk it if you are.”

“Because you don't stay dead?”

He shrugged. “That's not the only reason. I happen to admire your courage under fire. You're facing this better than I am, and I don't stay dead.”

She laughed. “Oh, please. Tell me another one. Make it a good one. Dying girl's send off. Final farewell and all. Ooh, tell me a secret. I can take it to my grave. All your secrets are safe with me.”

“Safe,” the Doctor said, hands going into his hair, and Hardy frowned, not sure why that was triggering some kind of brainstorm. 

“What?”

“Safe. You don't say saved. Nobody says saved. You say _safe,”_ the Doctor repeated. He turned back to the man in the suit. “The data fragment. What did it say?”

“Four thousand and twenty two people saved. No survivors.”

“Bloody hell,” Hardy said, looking at his father and trying to understand if he had the same thought.

“Doctor?”

“Nobody says saved. Nutters say saved. You say safe. You see, it didn't mean safe. It meant, it literally meant, _saved,”_ the Doctor answered, rushing over to the console, and Hardy knew they were actually having the same thought.

“Your teleport that went wrong,” Hardy said, and his father nodded. “And everyone else's.”

“Sorry, what are you two on about?”

The Doctor pointed to the screen. “See, there it is, right there. A hundred years ago, massive power surge. All the teleports going at once. Soon as the Vashta Nerada hit their hatching cycle, they attack. Someone hits the alarm. The computer tries to teleport everyone out.”

“It tried to teleport four thousand twenty two people?” the professor asked, and Hardy shook his head. Why was this so hard for everyone else to grasp? Was there really that much of a gap between Time Lord brains and humans?

“It succeeded. Pulled them all out, but then what? Nowhere to send them. Nowhere safe in the whole library. Vashta Nerada growing in every shadow. Four thousand and twenty two people all beamed up and nowhere to go. They're stuck in the system, waiting to be sent, like emails. So what's a computer to do? What does a computer always do?”

“It saved them,” Jack said with a nod. “Nice. So they're all alive.”

“A hundred years after everyone and everyone they know is dead, but that's fine because you know, they're still alive,” Hardy said, getting looks from everyone except visor girl. “Look, you can celebrate because you're happy you found them and they're still alive, but not everyone is going to thank you for this when they're out, not unless you also intend to send them all through time, too, but I know you better than that. You won't.”

The Doctor grimaced, but then the computer shut off. “I think we have other problems to worry about first.”

* * *

“And she saved them,” the Doctor said, proud and depressed all at the same time. What the girl's mind had done was clever and good, but it was all coming to an end. “She saved everyone in the library. Folded them into her dreams and kept them safe.”

“Then why didn't she tell us?” Anita asked, and he'd bet she'd be frowning if her face could be seen.

“Because she's forgotten,” the Doctor said, still filled with pity. “She's got over four thousand living minds chatting away inside her head. It must be like being, well, me.”

Everyone looked at the one who claimed to be his son, but he shook his head. He didn't share that problem, or so he would have them believe. 

River turned back to the Doctor. “So what do we do?”

“Easy,” the Doctor told her, smiling and a bit concerned when she smiled back so warmly. “We beam all the people out of the data core. The computer will reset and stop the countdown. Ooh, Difficult. Charlotte doesn't have enough memory space left to make the transfer. Easy. I'll hook myself up to the computer. She can borrow my memory space.”

She shook her head. “Difficult. It'll kill you stone dead.”

“Yeah, it's easy to criticize—”

“It'll burn out both your hearts and don't think you'll regenerate,” River said. “You can't do this.”

“I'll try my hardest not to die. Honestly, it's my main thing,” the Doctor told her, preparing the circuits for the transfer. “Look, you thought he was a future version of me, right? That means that I'm right. This works.”

“He said he was your son—” 

“Shut up,” the Doctor said, not really able to think about that now, though he could have argued that he didn't actually have a son at this point in time so he had to stay alive somehow as he would then create the son. Maybe. “Oh, you're not from Messaline, are you? That would explain a lot. Never mind. No time for that now. Listen, River. You and Luxy boy, back up to the main library. Prime any data cells you can find for maximum download, and before you say anything else—shut up.”

“Oh,” she said, frustrated. “I hate you sometimes.”

He smiled. “I'm sure you do. Now go.”

“Mister Lux, with me,” River ordered. She turned to Anita, Jack, and his son. She gave them all the same warning. “If he dies, I'll kill him.”

“Honestly,” his supposed son said, “where did you find that one?”

“She found me. Long story. I am apparently supposed to know her in the future,” the Doctor said, shrugging. “I guess I'll see when I get there.”

“Assuming you even get there,” his son said. He held out his hand. “Give me your screwdriver.”

“What? I might need that, and you should have your own.”

“I am not you. I'm so very much not you I was raised as a human. Had no idea you were my father until three days ago, now shut it and give me the damned tool,” his son snapped. “I can help with the transfer on the other end, but you're a bloody moron for not taking advantage of the obvious. Fixed point, remember?”

The Doctor's eyes slid to Jack, who shrugged. “Um...”

His son grabbed the sonic screwdriver and rushed off, leaving Jack and the Doctor alone with Anita. He didn't know that he wanted to ask Jack to do it, but he supposed it was less risky than chancing his own regeneration with it.

“What about the Vashta Nerada?”

Excellent question, that. The Doctor would have been pleased if it had actually came from Anita. “These are their forests. I'm going to seal Charlotte inside her little world, take everybody else away. The shadows can swarm to their hearts' content.”

“So you think they're just going to let us go?”

“Best offer they're going to get.”

Jack looked at him. “You're actually going to give them an offer? They're mindless killers.”

“I know, but they'd better take it, because right now, I'm finding it very hard to make any kind of offer at all,” the Doctor said, turning to face the suit. “You know what? I really liked Anita. She was brave, even when she was crying. And she never gave in. And you ate her.”

He pointed the screwdriver at her visor, revealing the skull behind it. Jack swore.

“I'm going to let that pass, just as long as you let them pass,” the Doctor said, talking about everyone he was preparing to release from the hard drive, not just the others from the expedition. The Vashta Nerada would love to keep Jack around, he was sure, since they could eat him forever, but that wasn't happening.

“How long have you known?”

“I counted the shadows. You only have one now,” the Doctor said, looking at the floor and back at her suit. “She's nearly gone. Be kind.”

“These are our forests. We are not kind,” the Vashta Nerada said, and as if to prove it, Jack let out a strained gurgle and fell to the ground, stripped of all his flesh. Again.

“I'm giving you back your forests, but you are giving me them,” the Doctor insisted, trying to contain his fury. He didn't care if Jack would come back from that. It didn't matter. That wasn't the point. They'd killed him, and they were not doing it again. “You are letting them go.”

“These are our forests,” they repeated, using Anita's voice to do it, almost like they were goading him, though he doubted the swarm was capable of that. “They are our meat.”

Shadows stretched out across the floor, moving toward the Doctor. He watched them, furious but still, oh so very still. They would regret every life they took. He could find a way to punish them. He knew that. He could destroy this whole planet, and he would, if he had to, Cal or no Cal.

“Don't play games with me,” the Doctor warned. “You just killed a friend of mine. And I liked Anita. And you're threatening my son. That is something you should never, ever do. Not my family. Not when I'm all that's left. And I _am_ all that's left. I'm the Doctor, and you're in the biggest library in the universe. Look me up.”

The shadows stopped. Then they drew back, fading into Anita. “You have one day.”

The suit fell, and River reentered the room just in time to see it happen. She rushed over to her, taking hold of her. “Oh, Anita.”

“She's been gone a while now. I'm sorry,” the Doctor told her, and he was. He had liked Anita. She was everything he'd told the Vashta Nerada. “I told you to go.”

“Lux can manage without me, but you can't.”

He stared at her, about to protest because he was not alone—Jack would be back in a minute—but then she hit him in the face, and she hit hard, he had to give her that, because he couldn't stay awake.

* * *

Jack gasped his way back into life, groaning. He had actually been eaten before, thanks to the Master's never ending need to torture and the mind of a Time Lord giving him so many ways to kill Jack over and over during that year. He grimaced when he saw Anita's suit, though he'd already known that she was dead.

“Autodestruct in two minutes,” the computer reported, and Jack frowned. It had only been ten when the Doctor got everyone else out of the room.

He dragged himself up so he could sit, needing to understand what had happened while he was out. Could the Vashta Nerada have eaten him twice in a row? He supposed that was possible, but he'd thought that the Doctor would have done something about—oh. Well, that explained a bit. And raised a hell of a lot of questions, Jack thought as he took in the cuffs chaining the Doctor to a part of the data core. “Nice and kinky. I like it.”

“I don't need your commentary, thank you,” the professor said, twisting some wires together.

The Doctor came around, frowning as he saw her in the chair. “Oh, no, no, no, no. Come on, what are you doing? That's my job.”

“Oh, and I'm not allowed to have a career, I suppose?” she teased, and Jack shook his head. He'd used some cheesy lines before, but he thought hers needed some work.

“Why am I handcuffed?” the Doctor demanded. “Why do you even have handcuffs?”

She grinned. “Spoilers.”

The Doctor shook his head. “This is not a joke. Stop this now. This is going to kill you. I'd have a chance, you don't have any.”

Normally, Jack would have laughed, but he was with the Doctor about the handcuff thing not being funny right now.

“You wouldn't have a chance, and neither do I. I'm timing it for the end of the countdown. There'll be a blip in the command flow. That way it should improve our chances of a clean download.”

“River, please,” the Doctor begged. “Don't do this. No.”

He threw a desperate look Jack's way, and Jack nodded, putting a finger to his lips. He started moving toward her, using her focus on the Doctor to get closer without her noticing.

“Funny thing is,” she went on, ignoring him completely. “This means you've always known how I was going to die. All the time we've been together, you knew I was coming here. The last time I saw you, the real you—the future you, I mean—you turned up on my doorstep, with a new haircut and a suit. You took me to Darillium to see the Singing Towers. What a night that was. The Towers sang, and you cried. You wouldn't tell me why, but I suppose you knew it was time. My time. Time to come to the library. You even gave me your screwdriver. That should have been a clue.”

The Doctor saw her screwdriver and tried to reach for it, but she'd made sure he couldn't get to it from where he'd been cuffed.

“There's nothing you can do,” she told him, a sad smile on her face. “You have to survive. If you die here, it'll mean I've never met you.”

“It doesn't have to be like this. Time can be rewritten—”

“Not those times. Not one line. Don't you dare,” she said, choked up, and Jack frowned. She was insane, this woman. He knew the idea of dying for love was romantic, but it wasn't even necessary, if she'd just listen. “It's okay. It's okay. It's not over for you. You'll see me again. You've got all of that to come. You and me, time and space. You watch us run.”

“Yeah, and you'll keep running for a while yet,” Jack said, giving her a whack, making sure it was hard enough to knock her out. He didn't have a lot of time, so he dumped her out of the chair, settling in to her place.

“Jack, even you might not—”

“Better me than you,” Jack told him, grinning as he stuck the makeshift crown on his head. “How do I look? No, don't tell me. Just... if I don't come back this time, make sure you take care of Alec, okay? He's somehow key to something very, very big, and I don't know what it is, but we need him. I know that much. Well, that and he's crossed so many timelines that I think time itself could break if he doesn't exist. Oh, and you are going to love your granddaughter.”

“I have a granddaughter?” the Doctor asked, but Jack joined the two cables and everything was one bright flash of light.


	35. Time for Cleanup

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hardy, Jack, and the Doctor deal with the aftermath of the library and uncover a new possibility.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I should try to clarify this a bit... 
> 
> It wasn't my intention to... um... do anything defamatory to River's character. I admit, I don't like her, but it wasn't my intention to badmouth her, same as it wasn't with Martha. I did, however, think that Hardy would have issues with the things she said and did, especially as she was mistaking him for the Doctor half the time, and that may have come off a little too harshly.
> 
> I do, however, love the idea of him defending his father and being protective of him, though.

* * *

_“Do you think it was worth it?”_

_“Yes.”_

_“That was fast. No hesitation, no regrets? You're sure?” He shook his head, trying to make sense of that. He would have expected a lot more than that. He himself was conflicted, uncertain what he felt or why. This shouldn't be so difficult, but then it was far from simple._

_“You know it was. Every little bit of it was, but then again, I wasn't the one that paid the price.”_

* * *

“What happened? How did we get here?”

Hardy stepped back from the console, almost bumping into a woman as he did. She hadn't been there when he climbed up to make the transfer. He took in the room, full of people and confused chatter. This couldn't be all of them, but then all of them wouldn't have fit in one place anyway. The rest of them had to be scattered through the library.

Where the damned shadows could eat them any second. Great plan this one.

“Look at you,” the man from the expedition said, rushing over to embrace one of the newcomers. “You're back. You're all back. He did it. You're all back. Look at you. Four thousand and twenty two people, saved.”

Hardy's grip tightened on his father's screwdriver, and he ran out of the room, back to the data core. He bumped several people along the way, not bothering to stop. He wasn't explaining this mess, and he wasn't fixing it. He also didn't know what Donna actually looked like to lead her to the Doctor.

“M-m-my w-w-wife,” a man said, trying to catch Hardy's arm. “I d-d-don't—”

“I can't help you,” Hardy told him, pulling free. “I don't know what happened to anyone here.”

He didn't say that the woman was probably dead. These people were saved, but that didn't make any of what came next for them pleasant. They could be coming back to find that their friends or family were dead here, and even if they weren't, everyone back home would be.

“D-d-donna.”

Hardy stopped, turning back to face him. He couldn't remember what the Doctor said that woman's last name was now. “Bloody hell. My father might know her. Come with me.”

He didn't wait to see if the other man did. If he couldn't keep up, that was also not Hardy's problem. He made his way back to the data core and stopped inside the doorway.

Hardy gestured to the handcuffs. “I'm not even going to ask.”

“Please don't,” his father said, waving him over. “Screwdriver?”

Hardy threw it to him. The Doctor caught it, setting to work on freeing his wrist. “Who's your friend?”

“Not mine. He's looking for Donna.”

“My Donna?”

The man with the stammer started to say something, but it didn't come out. He got frustrated, and Hardy moved to stop him from attacking him. “You don't even know that we're talking about the same woman. No point in fighting over her.”

The figure in the chair gasped, grabbing hold of the chair to stop himself from tumbling out of it. Panting hard, he looked over at him. “Remind me never to do that again. Oh, but hey. It worked, didn't it? That guy looks new.”

“Or old, depending on how you look at it,” the Doctor said, smiling. “Congratulations, Jack. Your sacrifice was not in vain.”

“Wasn't much of one,” Jack told him. “Wasn't like any of us thought I wouldn't come back. Guess I'm useful for some things, right, Alec?”

“Don't push it,” Hardy told him. He looked at his father, torn between asking questions and knowing that it was likely time to leave. Every time he did this it got harder, and he didn't know that he was willing to go through it again. This had better be the last time he had to do this.

At least until he got back to his proper time and finished dealing with Joe Miller and Claire Ripley. 

“We should talk,” the Doctor said, and Hardy nodded, well aware there was no avoiding it, even if his father had to forget everything. “I just—you'll stay until I find Donna? She's going to be angry, and it looks like we have another wrinkle here with the friend of hers you found. If he actually knows the same Donna. We could ask questions, I suppose, but save time. We'll do that en route. You with me. Jack, if you could assist Professor Song—”

“I've got her,” Jack said. “Though if you're not here when she wakes up—”

“I'll deal with her later,” the Doctor said, frowning. “Apparently there is a lot of things I'll be dealing with later when it comes to her.”

Hardy shook his head. “Don't assume that just because she came here claiming to know you that you have to do everything she said. This isn't set. None of it is. Not even me.”

“I can see we're going to have a very interesting conversation when I get back,” the Doctor said. “I look forward to it. Come along, then, my friend. Let's see if we have more friends in common. I like friends in common. Come to think of it, I just like friends. Friends are good.”

Hardy shook his head, crossing over to Jack's side.

* * *

“What happened to her?”

“I'm surprised you have to ask,” Jack said, grinning. He looked over at the fallen woman, grimacing a bit. That was not his finest work, though he was glad he'd come around in time to save her. “She was going to do it. Take the Doctor's place and kill herself to set them all free. I'd had another run in with the Vashta Nerada, so I think she figured I was dead, didn't wait for me to come around again. I did, and I was almost too late. Had to hit her fast and get her out of the chair. I took over, fried my brain, and came back.”

“You sound pleased.”

Jack shrugged. “I'm not going to say it didn't hurt—it always does—but I figure better me than her. Better me than him, that's for damned sure. He's worth dying for, and I've done it enough. I know.”

Alec gave him a look, and Jack smiled, nodding in answer to the unspoken question. Yes, he'd die for the Doctor's son, too, even if the other man couldn't stand him. That didn't matter. Alec Hardy was not an ordinary man. He might have wanted to be, pretended to be for a time, but he wasn't. And Jack didn't think it was all genetics, though anyone related to the Doctor would have an advantage.

Jack's eyes went to the floor. “I think she's coming around.”

“Is she?”

Jack knelt down next to her, brushing back her curls as her eyes fluttered open. “Hello, there. Sorry about the head. Didn't have time for my usual finesse.”

“You hit me,” she said, sitting up in a hurry. “Doctor? Where's the Doctor? If you let him free so he could kill himself—”

“Actually, I killed _myself,”_ Jack told her. She frowned. “You know, for a professor, you're not really getting it. I'm not going to insult you, but you really should listen a bit better. I don't stay dead. I was the best man for the job, and I did it. The Doctor's alive. He's off looking for Donna.”

Alec came close to her. “What was that? What do you know about Donna?”

“I can't tell you,” she said, scrambling to grab her blue book and the screwdriver. She clutched them out of his reach. “Spoilers.”

“Bloody hell,” Alec snapped. “Screw your spoilers. Why does hearing Donna's name upset you?”

“I can't tell you,” she insisted. “Those are your rules. I'm not supposed to tell you—”

“I'm _not_ the Doctor. And I don't care what the supposed future version of him told you. You can bloody well forget it. Tell me. Now.”

“Do you really think that I'm going to be intimidated by you? I won't give into threats.”

Alec's smile was entirely humorless. “I'm not supposed to exist. No one knows how it's possible. No one knows how it happened. He doesn't remember it. He doesn't know. Not here, not now, and not any other time I've met him. He gave me up. He lost me in time, and he forgot I was ever born. Every time we've met, he's had to forget me. And I'm here. You understand the implications of that, don't you?”

She shook her head. “No. You wouldn't do that.”

“Give me one reason why I wouldn't,” Alec countered. “You claim to love him, don't you? No, don't tell me how deep it is, how sincere you are. I don't care. No, I take that back. I care. I care about him, and I don't like the way you act toward him. Because you don't actually see him. You think he needs to change, to be better than he is. That's your first mistake. Loving someone isn't about changing them. I should know. That's half the reason my marriage failed.”

“And the other half?” Jack couldn't help asking, though he thought the professor was about to do it, and probably with a bit more snark.

“She shagged another man while we were still married,” Alec answered, a bit too matter of fact.

“That's not me,” the professor said, rubbing her head. “I would never cheat on the Doctor. That's not who I am.”

“You don't know what you're capable of until the moment comes and you're in it. You'll find you're capable of things you'd never imagined you would be,” Alec said, and Jack could have echoed it, both of them speaking from experience. “Which leads me to another bit I know too much about now. I've done this more than once, met up with him, helped him, and he's forgotten every time. I don't ever want to do that again. It hurts him, and it hurts me, and I don't even want to think about what it will do to Daisy. Having gone through this, I have to ask you why you would ever think of doing that to him.”

She stared at him. “What are you talking about?”

“You were willing to die for him. You would have died here, and yet all of what you know of him is supposedly in his future. You expected him to live and play out all of those things you did together. He was supposed to go on and love you all the while knowing that you would die right here. Everyone dies. He knows that. We all do, but he would know the exact moment of your death and that he caused it. He has to live with the death of his entire people on his shoulders, and you still want him to take your death and add that to it? You say you love him. You don't.”

She swallowed. “I'd have had no choice. It would have been a fixed point. The timeline would have had to be preserved.”

“And you never once considered the possibility that maybe he would have gone to you, lived out this whole scenario you imagined, all for one purpose and one purpose alone? That it might have been nothing but the timeline he was preserving?”

“Don't say that.”

Alec shook his head. “I'm not going to sugar coat things for you. You can't make this better. That doesn't work. Not with that timeline. It's in flux now. It's changing, and now he's free to do as he wants. If he chooses to love you, then he does it of his own will and not because you died for him.”

“Nice speech,” Jack said, rather impressed. He liked the Doctor's son, and not just because he was just as hot as his father.

“Oh, shut it.”

“No, it's beautiful, how much you care,” River told him. “It really is. I don't think I would have believed you were his son, not truly, without that. Every bit of that was so like him.” 

Jack had a feeling that was the wrong thing to say. Alec was a bit sensitive to everyone assuming he was the same as his father and knew everything his father did. 

“What happened to Donna?”

River shook her head. “I can't—”

“Tell me,” Alec ordered. “The timeline's already altered. I can't tell how much damage is done unless I know.”

Jack looked at him, not sure he believed what he was hearing right now. “Would you really change it back? You could erase yourself from existence, you and—”

“Spoilers,” Alec interrupted, deadpan.

River looked at him. “Not funny.”

“Actually, it was kind of hilarious,” Jack told her, grinning. She glared at him, and he shrugged. He liked them feisty, and she definitely was. Plus, it was just fun watching the Doctor's son wind her up like he was, given that she might just be his mother.

River sighed, finally relenting. “Donna becomes a part of the metacrisis.”

Jack turned to Alec, not sure what she meant by that. He didn't know if the other man would know, either. Time Lords had plenty of secrets. “What's that?”

“Another thing that should be impossible,” Alec answered, and Jack didn't like the way his voice sounded. Something was wrong, and it was more than the Vashta Nerada or bringing people back a hundred years after everyone thought they'd been lost.

“You're here,” River said, moving toward him, her screwdriver in hand. “You exist. You're him, aren't you? The Doctor's metacrisis.”

“No.” Alec ground the word out harshly.

“Interesting theory,” Jack began, “but—and I'm a little fuzzy on the details here since neither of you gave me any—wouldn't that mean that—”

“Explains the divorce,” River said, nodding as she seemed to cotton on to the idea.

Hardy glared at her. “Excuse me?”

River shrugged. “She thought you were the Doctor. You weren't. And it ended.”

“No,” Alec said, not waiting for her to respond to that. He turned, walking out of the room and leaving them both standing there. Jack grimaced, forced to rush after him and catch back up with him. He shouldn't have given him the vortex manipulator, and maybe he could get a ride from the Doctor, but that didn't mean he wanted Alec wandering off alone all the same.

“Hey,” Jack said as he jogged up to him. “You're not leaving me behind.”

“Don't tempt me.”

“And don't take your irritation with her out on me,” Jack told him. “We both know she's wrong. You're not a metacrisis. You're his son. He took you to Sarah Jane as a baby.”

“Did he?” Alec countered. “We only have my mother's word for that, and she could have lied—she _did_ lie. And who is to say that I didn't come from this metacrisis? We don't know.”

Jack shrugged. If that was true, then they might just have ruined Alec's birth. Again. He tried for a lighter note. “Does that make Donna your mother?”

“Damn,” River said from behind them. “I was rather hoping it might be me.”

* * *

“Well, if you really think about it, things could be a lot worse,” Jack said, and Hardy glared at him. He didn't need or want to hear it. He was well aware of just how much worse it could be, and it wouldn't take much, since River had already made her way over to the Doctor, and their conversation could go any of a hundred ways, most of which Hardy had no interest in watching.

“Don't you even start,” Hardy told Jack. “You're sitting over there trying not to laugh.”

Jack took in Donna and Lee and shrugged. “Like I said, it could be worse.”

“Pretty soon, it will be. For you.”

“Are you threatening my life again?” Jack asked, amused. “I have to say, that's kind of—”

“Don't say it.”

Jack shrugged. “I won't deny I find it—you—attractive, but I was going to say cute. Maybe endearing. It's like you care. Or that you've actually accepted what I am and what that means.”

Hardy grunted. “Let's not go that far.”

“I already have,” Jack said with a wink. Hardy glared back at him, and he laughed. “Oh come on. Don't let this get to you. You've already stabilized the timelines enough to where you and Daisy aren't at risk. That has to count for something. And even if you are a metacrisis—that's not the end of the world, now is it?”

“Shut up.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Fine. We'll just go interrupt everyone and say goodbye, then. Doc, your son and I have to get going. Thing is, I did sort of interrupt him mid-crisis back on Earth, so we should probably get back to where we were.”

The Doctor turned away from River with a frown. “What?”

“Something came out of the rift that's a bit of a threat to the world, but don't worry. We've got it in hand now, so we'll just—”

“You—I can't just let you leave. We have a lot to discuss,” the Doctor said, looking at Hardy, and he could see the misery on his father's face. Again. “I know I have to forget, but there is so much I don't understand, and I just met you. I can't even have five minutes with my son?”

“Son?” Donna asked. “You don't mean—”

“Not now,” the Doctor told her. “And no, he's not a construct from the Library. We can't get your children back. I'm sorry. And you, Lee, your time is... technically gone. I don't know what's waiting for you on your home planet, if anything.”

Lee frowned. “My family?”

“It's been a hundred years,” Hardy told him. “They're probably dead.”

“Oh,” the man said, looking rather devastated. “I d-d-don't... t-t-they c-c-can't...”

“I've got you,” Donna told him. “I'm still here for you. If you want me, that is. I didn't—”

He tried to manage a smile, but it wasn't all that convincing.

“If you're running, I think you might want to do it now,” Jack said. “Soon as more of these people realize what Lee just did, you'll have a huge problem on your hands. I once tried to help a man after his plane was drawn into the rift. Over fifty years passed in an instant for him, and his family was gone. He chose to die rather than start over. These people, this four thousand... they could, too.”

“Oi,” Donna said. “What's with the pair of you? You enjoy being the voice of doom and gloom, that it? Not enough you have to go telling everyone their world is gone, you want to encourage them to kill themselves, too?”

“He is not advocating suicide,” Jack said, frowning at her. “Neither of us are.”

“It's called being realistic,” Hardy corrected. “There's still a price to pay for their survival. Consequences. Things have an impact, whether you want to see them or not. And this will change them, all of them, so don't look at me like that. Dying's easy. Living is the hard part.”

“I want to go drinking with you,” Jack told him, and Hardy frowned at him. “Just saying—you're this profound sober, and I'd like to see how you'd be drunk.”

“You're an arse,” Hardy muttered.

“She was saying we're doom and gloom,” Jack said. “And I'm not. I'm the fun one. Most of the time, anyway.”

Hardy chose to ignore that. “We need to go. Or at least, I'm going.”

The Doctor pushed past the others to come to his side. “I have so many questions.”

“Aye, that's familiar, too,” Hardy told him. “I can't answer most of them, and not because of spoilers. I actually don't know.”

Donna snorted. “You expect us to believe you don't know? You're him, aren't you? An older him, with an accent, but still him.” 

“No,” Hardy said. He faced his father. “You know the answers won't do you any good.”

“I have to forget, but that doesn't mean I don't want to know,” the Doctor told him. He pulled him into a hug, holding on tight. “Please.”

“Daisy. Fifteen. Ginger. Adores you and the TARDIS,” Hardy whispered, and the Doctor pulled back with a huge grin.

“Really?”

“Yes, and I need to get back now.”

The Doctor hugged him again. “I don't want to let you go. Selfish, I know, and wrong, too, but I haven't had time to know you or—”

“Pretty sure you'll see him again,” Jack said, pulling Hardy back from the Doctor's hold. “And we really should get back to deal with that Flyboln.”

“What?”

Hardy grimaced. Jack just had to say mention Claire's species, didn't he? Now they were never going to get out of here. He shook his head, reaching into his pocket and taking out the vortex manipulator.

“We have to go. Now.”


	36. Time for a Revision

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hardy and Jack rejoin the others in time to help with Claire, but Hardy's mind is still on what happened in the Library.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I think I found myself something else I had to do even though it wasn't part of the original plan, but it makes sense now that I've raised the issue.
> 
> And... when I was looking over an earlier chapter today I discovered that the final scene had gotten cut off somehow. I swear I read it over when I posted it, but when I checked today, the end of chapter 33 was gone. So I've replaced it. I'm not sure what happened, but if anyone read that and was confused, that's why. Part of the scene was missing but should be back now. If not, let me know.

* * *

_  
“You're saying this is all down to prophecy. Foretold and known, something that none of us could run from if we wanted to,” he said, facing down the creature in front of him. “The thing about prophecies, though, is that you have to be a god to make them work. Not even access to the timelines is enough, and you... you are no god.”_

_“I have ensured fulfillment of the prophecy.”_

_“No, you haven't,” he said. “Because the one thing you didn't factor in—no, I take that back. Two things you didn't factor in. Free will. We do as we please, no matter what timelines say.”_

_“You have acted according to my will.”_

_“No, I haven't. Because that other thing you didn't factor in... that was me.”_

* * *

“Claire? You still in there somewhere? Don't suppose we could have a bit of a chat?” the Doctor called, rushing after the cloud he could just barely see flitting in and out of the ventilation shaft. She hadn't expanded in the way he knew a Flyboln could, the way they were actually meant to do, shutting out the natural air of any given planet, and he wasn't sure what to make of that, but he was glad of it nevertheless, because they needed that time.

That, and he was still sure that it would kill Rose and Ellie, and he would not allow that. Rose was too important to him, and Ellie to his son. Both of them were not losses he would accept. Joe Miller, yes. Them, no.

And since Claire the Flyboln was not behaving like a Flyboln, he had to assume that enough of her human side had stayed with her, the imprint not released when she went into her gaseous form. He didn't know if she could be reasoned with, but he knew he had to try.

“Claire, what if we just all sat down and had another talk? I know you have some issues to resolve and some programming, too, but I can help with that,” the Doctor said, wincing again when he thought of what these Flyboln had been made to do and who had made them that way.

“You really think that's going to talk to you?” Ellie asked, eying the vent with disbelief. “I don't get it. Your son has to be one of the most pessimistic men on the planet, but you, you're optimistic to a bloody fault.”

“He always has to give them a chance,” Rose told her, “but one's all they get, so... it's not exactly optimism, is it?”

“Suppose not,” Ellie said. “What the hell is taking Hardy so long?”

The Doctor decided it was best not to mention that he currently couldn't feel his son's presence in his mind. That would only panic everyone, and he was doing his best to ignore his own feelings on the matter. They had to deal with the current threat first, and then they'd sort out what might have happened to his son.

Right. And if he repeated that enough in his head, he'd believe it. He just hoped they were far enough away that they weren't panicking his granddaughter into coming after them. He didn't want to go upsetting her and Sarah Jane to no purpose. They had K-9, and they were safe—so long as Claire stayed contained—and that was what he needed, to know they were safe.

He was about to say something when two figures appeared in front of him, coming out of nowhere. The one fell right after his rematerialization, coughing and struggling to breathe. Jack looked down at his companion, frowning.

“I swear, Harkness. I'm going to kill you,” Alec groused. He took a deep breath, looking like he might just pass out on the floor. “And when you come back... kill you again.”

“I look forward to it,” Jack told him with a wink, and Alec managed a weak glare before almost collapsing again. “Okay, I have never seen that happen before. It's never been the smoothest of rides, but a vortex manipulator isn't supposed to do that.”

“And his genetics aren't supposed to be mixed like they are,” the Doctor said, going to his son's side. “What are you doing here, Jack? We left you back in Cardiff.”

“I know. And I was all set to share a drink of retcon with my team when the vortex manipulator went off again,” he said. “Took me outside here, and I got a message to your son. Then we both had a bit of a side journey, and now we're back.”

“Sir,” Ellie began, swallowing as she looked down at Alec, almost losing her grip on her husband. “Are you—”

“Fine, Miller. Where's Lee?”

“Lee?” Rose asked. “We've been tracking Claire. She just went into those vents.”

He shook his head, trying to push himself to his feet. “Go find Lee. She'll find you or you can use him to lure her in.”

“Agreed, but once she has Lee—”

“I think we may have been wrong about...” Alec paused, leaning back against the wall. “Wrong about... her purpose. We... she... She once told me... 'You go about your life thinking you're complete, then you meet someone and realize you're only half of something.' That 'you're only really whole when you're with each other.'”

“She wants Lee to put her back together, to make her whole again?” Rose asked. “Can that even be done? Can she go back to being human if she finds him?”

“Not likely,” Ellie said. “Lee was done with her. It's why she turned herself in, gave us Pippa's pendant and confessed to her part in it. Well, not entirely. She was setting him up, him and Ricky.”

“Still, it could help,” the Doctor said. “And it's better than convincing her that Joe's shadow is a higher lifeform. Alec, can you walk with us? I think we need you, since you know her better than any of us.”

“Aye,” he answered, pushing away from the wall only to have Jack catch him a moment later.

“I've got you,” Jack told him, getting a glare from Alec. “Relax. I won't do anything I shouldn't. I'm just the best support you could have until this bit of vortex illness passes.”

“Vortex illness?”

“Inexplicable oversensitivity to travel in time and space by vortex manipulator is a bit of a mouthful,” Jack said with a cheeky grin. “Vortex sickness? Would that be better?”

“Oh, shut it,” Alec muttered, pushing him away and walking off on his own.

* * *

“You're not supposed to be here. Not when my solicitor isn't.”

“I'm not the bloody prosecutor,” Hardy said, taking the seat next to him, slumping down a bit in a way that had Ellie plenty worried, even if she wasn't about to admit that. She didn't know what it was with that man and always being sick or why she cared, but she did. Or maybe she was just worried about Joe escaping from Jack's custody. That had better not happen. “And this isn't about your case.”

“Well,” the Doctor said, drawing out the word and making Lee stare at him in disbelief. “We think you might actually be able to earn yourself a bit of a... stay of execution, as it were. Not that you're going to be executed. Pretty sure this country doesn't do that in this time period. Or was that the next one? I get so confused sometimes. Then again, considering how upset Claire is and her being a Flyboln, it sort of is an execution. Not just for you. The whole world.”

“What are you on about?” Lee demanded. “And who the hell are you? You don't have a brother, Hardy. I know that. Figured you might stash Claire with family when you hid her, but I looked. You haven't got any besides your daughter.”

“Actually, he has a lot more than you think,” the Doctor said with pride. “Though I doubt you'd believe it. And how is it that your mother isn't—”

“I cut her ties with me on all official papers years ago,” Hardy told him. “Kept us both safe. My enemies couldn't go after her, and she couldn't drag her investigations into Daisy's life.”

“Ah, yes,” the Doctor said. “Makes sense. I suppose you would have thought you could harass his mother if you'd known about her.”

“You bet I would,” Lee said, glaring at Hardy. “He made my life hell.”

“You killed a twelve year old girl,” Hardy countered, not backing down even a little. “I don't care if your bloody forensics were on Lisa's body. His would have been, too, and I'm not so blinded that I wouldn't have looked into it if you'd even once told me that it was Ricky who killed her, not you. Instead, you just kept insisting you didn't kill Pippa—a lie—and that you didn't know what happened to Lisa. Yes, he could have made a defense it was you, and maybe he would have gotten away with it, but you never even tried the truth. Oh, you said it was Ricky once or twice, but not that killed Lisa. And no one believed he killed Pippa.”

“He's right,” Ellie said. “Even when Ricky behaved so strange, it was difficult to accept him as the killer of his own little girl. Something of him was off, but he seemed so broken about her. Still is.”

“He isn't innocent.”

“Neither are you,” Hardy told him. “Still, you might be able to make up for part of what you did. Won't bring Pippa back, won't change the last two years, but it will possibly save the world.”

Lee frowned. “What?”

“Claire is... Well, she's an alien capable of killing the entire human race.”

“You're joking.”

“No, we're not,” Ellie said. “I'd like it to be a joke. I'd like to wake up and think I got so pissed I made it all up, including my husband killing Danny Latimer, but it doesn't work like that. Your wife is an alien. You can either help us stop her, or she'll kill you first.”

“I want nothing to do with her. She aborted my child. And _you_ helped her,” Lee spat, glaring at Hardy again. “Did you sleep with her, too? Was it yours?”

“No.”

“It's almost impossible for it to have been his child,” the Doctor said. “And... well, not that you will find much comfort in it, but the child very likely wouldn't have survived. Claire imprinted on humanity, took its form, and she bonded with you, but she's actually a gaseous cloud. So... um... yes, just a little incompatibility there.”

“What?”

“Doctor,” Rose said, sounding nervous. “I think Claire is here.”

He looked up at the nearest vent and the cloud coming out of it. “Yes, I think she is.”

* * *

“Do you think this is going to work?”

“It's either this or getting her to imprint on the shadow that is attached to Joe Miller, and the odds of that are even worse,” the Doctor admitted, and Rose frowned. He shrugged. “We all agreed that was a bad plan, even if we created it together. It was nice teamwork, and I enjoyed that bit, but as far as confidence in it saving the world, I admit I didn't have much.”

“Oh, sure, now you tell us.”

“Well, I wouldn't want you to feel defeated before we even started. Besides, it looks like we managed to get somewhere with Lee, so we might not need that plan. Always good to have a spare or two. Plans work better that way.”

She snorted. “You don't actually have a plan that often. You make it up as you go along.”

“I do, and I do it brilliantly,” the Doctor agreed, grinning at her. She rolled her eyes, but somehow she was grinning with him.

“So if this does work, what do we do? Lee is supposed to go on trial for murder, right? It's not like we can take him out of here, even if she does revert,” Rose said, and the Doctor grimaced. “That was your plan, wasn't it? You wanted to shuffle them off into the TARDIS and put them on a planet—probably the Flyboln homeworld—where Claire's not a threat to anyone.”

“Um...” the Doctor pulled on his ear, looking uncomfortable.

“Time machine,” his son said, and the Doctor frowned.

“We can't go back. We're part of the events now, and we can't cross them—”

“We _can_ go back and set in motion the paperwork that would extradite Lee Ashworth to France for other crimes,” Alec said, and the Doctor's eyes widened before he smiled, getting excited.

“Brilliant. Because the legal system will still see him as locked up and he's not really going free as he's going to another planet which might just be worse than prison in some sense—not that he would die there, he won't, but it would be a very basic life... Still, it's a good reason for him to disappear from here and—”

“And it won't take away the justice I promised Kate Gillespie,” Alec finished. “I'll go back to the office and see if the paperwork has come through.”

The Doctor frowned. “Are you sure you're all right? Something is still off, and I'm not sure if it's the vortex sickness or—”

“I'm fine.”

“I'll go with him,” Ellie said, and he frowned at her. “That way he won't be alone if something does happen.”

Alec stalked off, grumbling to himself, and Rose smiled a bit, glad he had someone to watch out for him. He was like the Doctor in that he shouldn't be alone, and while Alec had a daughter and the rest of the Doctor's family was gone, that wasn't a fair burden to put on a child. Rose knew how that went, even if her mum had done her best.

“So... TARDIS?”

The Doctor looked over at Lee and the no longer gaseous Claire, nodding. “TARDIS.”

* * *

“What is bothering you?” Miller asked as she walked with Hardy toward the front office. “And don't say nothing. I've been around you long enough to know when something's wrong. Besides, your father mentioned it, and he's got some weird mental link with you.”

“Leave it alone,” Hardy said, not wanting to think about the things the professor had said in the Library. Being the Doctor's son was one thing. Being some metacrisis clone of him was another, and he didn't want that. He was _not_ the same man, and he didn't want to be some kind of pale copy, a flawed reproduction.

“You know me better than that,” she said, and he grimaced because he did. She wasn't going to quit. “What was it? Where did you go?”

“Miller—”

“It's your father's timeline it screws up, not mine,” she interrupted. “And don't tell me it's none of my business. It became my business when that bloody blue box dropped down on the beach in front of me and you came out of it. Or maybe it goes back to when you stole my job. I don't know. All I know is now my life's caught up in yours, and I don't see that getting unraveled any time soon, do you?”

He frowned. “You know you don't have to stick around after we finish with your husband. We'll make sure he gets locked up, the Doctor will dump that shadow of his somewhere else, and it'll be over. Jack can even help you forget if you want.”

“No, I do not want,” she said, and he snorted. “I know what I said to Lee, and I wasn't lying. I do wish that I could wake up and have Joe not have killed anyone. I miss my old life sometimes even if it was a complete lie. I don't—I want some of that back, but I can't pretend I don't know what I know now, and taking that away... it would be like finding out Joe lied all over again. It would cut a part out of me, and I don't want that.”

Hardy nodded. He knew that he couldn't give up knowledge of who his father was or what he was, not willingly, even as much as the repeated goodbyes were difficult.

“So,” Miller elbowed him, and not very gently at all, “what happened?”

“Different kind of shadows. The Vashta Nerada.”

“The ones that supposedly take people in the woods?”

“This time it was a library.”

She frowned, taking a minute to remember that books were made out of paper that was made out of trees. “Oh. And people died?”

“Aye.”

“How many?”

“Hell of a lot more than needed to,” Hardy answered, wanting to leave it there. Miller, of course, wasn't going to do that. No, not her. She had to pry and push at everything.

“You don't blame yourself for that, do you? You didn't make the books that gave these things their... what, hunting ground? And you didn't bring anyone there, except that Jack fellow, and from what you said earlier, he doesn't... stay dead.” Miller grimaced. “Or did you make that up?”

“No. He's a fixed point. He can't die.”

“Oh.”

“You still want to remember all this, Miller?”

“Don't be a knob,” she muttered, pulling him to a stop. “You went through the whole Latimer case trying to show me how to be detached, an outsider, to shut down my emotions and work like a bloody robot. Actually, having seen your dog, I'm a bit worried by that, but never mind that. You said shut it down, but you're standing there blaming yourself for those deaths that you couldn't stop. You don't know how to shut it off yourself, do you?”

He yanked his arm free, moving again. Detachment had always been a problem, even when he didn't show it, but he wasn't letting her have that victory. “I met a woman there who wanted to be my mother.”

“Tried to adopt you out of gratitude?”

“No, she was supposedly in love with the Doctor and by that extension wanted to be my mother.”

“Not Rose?”

“No.”

Miller frowned. “What was so wrong with her, then? She come onto you first thinking you were him? Or was she too much like Tess? Or my sister? She kind of fancies you.”

“What?”

“I never said that. What was wrong with this would-be mother of yours?”

“She was willing to die for him.”

Miller stared at him. “Since when is that a bad thing? We all say we're willing to die for those we love. It's a measure of your love that you are, and I know you were willing to do it—you took the fall for the woman you loved even after she screwed you over. So what—”

“He hadn't met her yet. She would have condemned him to a relationship where he knew the entire time exactly when she'd die and why, and he would have been so damned convinced he had to preserve the timeline he would have done it, gone through it and loved her—or pretended to—so that he didn't cause a damned paradox,” Hardy snapped, and Miller continued to gape at him. “She irritated me, and not in the way you do, but in a way that—though she might not be my mother at all. She thinks I might be a... clone. In her timeline, he creates a clone, and she thinks that's me.”

“Bloody hell,” Miller whispered. “Do you think she's right?”

“I don't want her to be,” Hardy admitted. “I am _not_ him.”

Miller nodded. “Right. So how do we prove her wrong?”

He frowned at her. “What?”

She shrugged. “You're the Time demi-Lord. You know about these other timelines. How do we find out if she was wrong?”

“I don't know when the metacrisis happens to go there and find out,” Hardy said. Then he stopped. “But the Doctor said something about Messaline, and that could be an answer, too. He said it would explain things.”

“Where the hell is Messaline?”

“Don't know,” Hardy answered, “but I know how we can find out.”


	37. Time for One More

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ellie and Hardy go a bit astray on their way to getting the paperwork.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I figured one part of this was a bit overdue, and then another part is very, very overdue, and then a third part wasn't going to happen at all, but... it's all for the best, I hope. 
> 
> I think this will help a lot. Well, a bit.

* * *

_“Where does this leave us?”_

_“Honestly, I've no idea.”_

_“Sure you don't.”_

_“You expect me to have all the answers. I don't. I don't know what to do, where to go from here. None of this was supposed to happen.”_

* * *

“I can't believe you want to phone the dog.”

Hardy gave her a look. “It's a very smart dog. Knows a lot more than you think. Better than an encyclopedia.”

“It's a dog. A robot dog, but still a dog,” Ellie said, and his second look was more withering than the first. She knew he'd grown up with the thing, but this was still ridiculous, no matter what he said. 

“How do you think I know all these random things I know?” Hardy countered. “It's not like I was born with all the knowledge of the Time Lords in my head. That had to come from somewhere. K-9 was that somewhere.”

“You're kidding.”

“No.”

“What, it just followed you around when you were a baby, rattling off random facts?”

“No. K-9 told me bedtime stories.”

She stared at him. “You wanker. Quit taking the piss.”

He shook his head. “Stuart Hardy didn't want anything to do with me, and she was still traveling and working. It was K-9 or nothing. I chose K-9.” 

“Okay, pretend I believe any of that, how are you going to call it?”

“He's a robot. You think I never called him before?” Hardy asked, taking out his phone and entering a number as they walked. “You don't have to do this. I can deal with it on my own.”

“I said I was going with you, and I still have a stake in this,” Ellie reminded him. She didn't think anyone should be left alone in his state. If he was just a clone—well, what the hell did that even mean? “We haven't finished dealing with Joe yet or Claire.”

He shook his head. “You only know about Claire because I pulled you into that investigation. You shouldn't have been involved.”

“It's too late for that now,” Ellie said, not sure when he'd happened upon what just might be a noble streak, but she didn't want him doing anything stupid because of it. “I'm involved, that's done, so accept that I'm coming with you. We need that paperwork for Lee—assuming it's even there—and we could do with some for Joe, too.”

“Might be in luck there,” Hardy said, frowning at someone ahead of them in hallway. “That looks like Dirty Brian.”

“You can't go around calling him that all the time.”

“You intend to stop me?”

Now it was her turn to give him a look, which she did. “Just... behave for two minutes. Smile and nod as we pass by him, that's it. I don't care what he said to your dad—or what your dad did to him. If we ever work a case again, we need him.”

“You,” Brian said as he came up to them. “I don't know how you knew, but you knew. Suppose you'll be glad, Ellie.”

“What?”

“This,” Brian said, starting to hand her a printout. “I was going to send this to you both later, but since you're here, together, you may as well just have it.”

“We're not together,” Ellie said, and Brian snorted. Hardy snatched the paper from his hand, walking away from them. “Hey, he said it was for both of us.”

“You don't want to see this,” Hardy said over his shoulder, and she frowned. What was he playing at? They both knew what it said. Joe's DNA had been found where Keith Humphries died.

Brian touched her arm. “He... he might actually be right about that. It's just... well, they found something that ties Joe to another boy's death.”

“Damn it,” she said as she remembered that she wasn't supposed to know about this. She would have been horrified—she had been—but she'd had time to come to terms with it already.

“I'm sorry.”

She nodded, feeling strange. “I... I just hope that this time he stays behind bars.”

“Miller,” Hardy called, and she grimaced before hurrying after him. Who knew what he'd do if she left him on his own, and they still needed to get the paperwork for Lee. At least now they knew they could drop Joe in Cardiff. That was one less thing to worry about.

She hurried over to catch him. “You're a bastard, you know that?”

“Aye. Unless I'm a clone.” 

“Do not make me laugh right now,” she ordered him. “I'm supposed to be freaking out because I just learned Joe killed another boy. Brian is going to know something's wrong.”

“Do you want me to pretend you're getting all soppy on me over there? I could yell at you to shut it down, maybe throw in an insult or two—”

“Wanker,” she said, hitting his arm, still fighting laughter. She should hit him again, really hurt him. “Let's get that paperwork.”

* * *

“They'll be waiting.”

“I'm aware of that,” Hardy said. “Feel free to take that to them if you want.”

Miller put her hand on his arm. “Exactly what do you think you're doing? You've been weird since you got back from that side trip, and I said I wasn't leaving you alone because you had your father worried. If you think I'm leaving you behind now—”

“I'm not an invalid. My heart's been fixed. Stop fussing. Go give them their paperwork. I have to call my dog.”

“Unbelievable,” she muttered, shaking her head. She folded her arms over her chest. “Go on, then. Ring your dog.”

He gave her a look before pressing the button, and she reached over him to put it on speaker. He frowned. They didn't need everyone in the bloody prison hearing what K-9 had to say.

“Master?”

“Directive nine,” Hardy said, and Miller snorted next to him. He pointed her down the hall.

“Affirmative,” K-9 said. “Privacy mode engaged. How can I be of assistance?”

“I need to know everything you can tell me about the planet Messaline.”

“Warning. Data may be incomplete or erroneous,” K-9 began, and Hardy held up a hand before Miller could say anything. “Messaline. Atmosphere 80:20 nitrogen and oxygen. Originally uninhabited. Terraformed and colonized by a joint human-Hath expedition in July 6012 according to the New Byzantine calendar.”

Hardy frowned. “Did this colony have advanced technology?”

“Insufficient data available to answer that query.”

Miller looked like she was about to laugh. Hardy warned her off with a pointed glance. “What about cloning programs?”

“No known use of artificial means of reproduction,” K-9 answered. “Obscure reference to legend speaks of a war of generations and the man who never would. This war lasted seven days.”

“Generations in seven days?” Miller shook her head. “That's not possible.”

“Correction, Mistress. It is quite possible if—”

“Not now, K-9,” Hardy said, hanging up. He leaned back against the wall. That hadn't told him enough. He couldn't be sure what had happened on Messaline or why the Doctor thought that might explain where he came from.

“You're even rude to your dog,” Miller said, coming over to join him against the wall. “Now what?” 

He shook his head. “No bloody idea. Guess we'd better get them that paperwork.”

He pushed away from the wall, starting to walk back toward the others. Miller stopped him, putting her hand on his arm, and then the world shifted around them again. He heard Miller scream, and then he was kneeling on the ground, struggling to breathe.

“Shit. Hardy, tell me that was not what I thought it was.”

He gave her a baleful look. Of course it was what she thought it was. He'd been so distracted after getting back from the last trip that he forgot he still had the damned vortex manipulator. “Meant to... give it back... Hate this thing.”

“Are you going to make it? The Doctor seemed to think—”

“It hurts, but I'll live,” he insisted, trying to get up. He knew it was worse this time because he'd just finished a trip through the vortex, but all he could do was grimace. She knelt next to him, hand on his back now, trying to soothe him. “Help me up. I don't want to stay here.”

“Then just... take us back.”

“Doesn't work like that,” he told her, showing her the blank screen. “Must be some kind of... timer. Right now, nothing. Come on. Get me up, and we'll see where we are.”

“If I don't make it back to my boys—”

“Trust me, Miller, I am not leaving Daisy behind,” he said, using the woman to stand up, needing to lean against her for much longer than he liked. “I think I can make it work, but I'd need tools for that, which means moving. Need to see what we can find.”

She nodded. “This doesn't mean I'm not angry.”

“I know you are.”

“Good,” she said, helping him along the corridor and into the nearest open doorway. She stopped, and Hardy thought she might drop him, but no, she was just watching the others in the room. One was human, the other some kind of amphibian—or was it a fish? They were apparently involved in some sort of rite for the dead—the young blonde on the table.

“Don't, Miller. We don't know what she died of.”

“Doctor?”

“Oh, great, he was here,” Miller muttered, and Hardy elbowed her. She glared back at him. “I don't know if you've noticed or not, but bad things tend to follow him.”

“If he's gone, he's fixed whatever was wrong,” Hardy told her, eyes on the blonde. A green and golden light went out of her mouth, and then she gasped, sitting up not unlike Jack did. Miller swore, taking a step back and almost knocking him over.

“Hello, boys,” the blonde said, jumping off the table with a grin. She looked over at them and rushed over to his side. She hit him full force, and Hardy almost toppled over. “Dad. How long was I out? Your face has changed.”

“Um...”

“He's not the Doctor,” Miller said. The woman turned to her with a frown. “No, it's true. He's not. Say something, would you? That would help.”

“Like I could get a word in edgewise,” he grumbled. He turned back to the blonde. “Who the hell are you?”

“Jenny. Short for generated anomaly,” she said, frowning. “Are you from the machine, too? I thought that they'd stopped the progenation machines.”

Miller stared at her. “The what?”

“Progenation,” Hardy explained. “Reproduction from a single organism. Means one parent is biological mother and father. Diploid cells are split them into haploids and recombine them in a different arrangement and then grown.”

“You're bloody kidding.”

He shook his head. “Think test tube baby only... accelerated.”

“And the Doctor thought that was what you were,” Miller said, frowning. “I guess if that's how she came about, that would make sense, but wait—you're a hybrid. You had two parents.”

“Theoretically,” Hardy said, since they couldn't be sure.

“You're half-human,” Miller insisted. She turned to the woman. “Are you? You're not, are you? You came from the Doctor and _only_ the Doctor. Which means that's not how Hardy came into existence. He's something else. Still the Doctor's son or his—”

“You're my brother?” Jenny asked, and Hardy swore just as she hugged him again.

* * *

“I was going to take the shuttle,” Jenny told them, and Ellie tried not to overreact. Every time she thought she had a handle on Hardy having a nine hundred year old alien for a father, something else happened to make the situation that much more complicated and insane. Now he had a sister. “Go out and do what he does, you know. Explore the universe, save planets, rescue civilizations, creatures to defeat, and run. Lots of running. Is that what you do?”

“No.”

“Not exactly,” Ellie countered, aware that it would annoy him. “He does save people and defeat monsters. Doesn't run much. Or at least... he didn't. Heart trouble.”

“Miller.”

She shrugged. “You dragged me to an alien planet. I'll say whatever I please.”

“I didn't drag you,” he said. He turned back to Jenny. “The Doctor told me his family was dead.”

“I kind of picked up on that, too,” Jenny said with a frown. She didn't seem to realize that she'd known that until just then. “I don't know what happened to them—”

“I do,” Hardy said. Ellie could hear the pain in it, and that surprised her. He wasn't usually that open, and she didn't think she wanted to know what happened to the Doctor's other family. “He didn't know you were alive when I saw him last.”

“What do you mean?” Ellie asked, turning to him. “How did he not know?”

“He already left the planet,” Jenny said. “He didn't know I woke up, and I didn't know where to go to find him. I was just... going to have an adventure. Wait, if you've seen him since he's been here—you can't have.”

“He didn't mention the time travel, then,” Ellie said. “What is it with your family and leaving out important information like that?”

Hardy grunted. “She's a generated anomaly, and you think he'd tell her everything? Don't be so naïve, Miller.”

“Yes, but so are you, apparently, and he trusts you,” Ellie told him, and Hardy stopped, staring at her. She did the same, a bit stunned to realize that he didn't know. He didn't actually understand how much his father cared about him.

“You saw Dad, though?”

“I did,” Hardy answered, throat closing up a bit. “From his reaction to me, I'd say that he still didn't know that you survived at that point in his timeline, but all of that is still ahead of where he is in the timeline where he knows about me.”

“I don't understand.”

“I don't think any of us do,” Ellie said. “I guess the next question is, what do we do now? We found your sister, but that doesn't tell us much. What do we do now? We don't even know where we are. This might not be that place you heard about.”

Hardy looked at his sister. “What planet is this?”

“Messaline,” she answered. “The Doctor called it Messaline when he looked at the computer. Why? Is that important?”

“It is,” Ellie said. She glanced toward Hardy, reconsidering her words. “And it isn't. I... I don't know what else we can do here, Hardy. We have to go back. I have two boys to think about, and I'm not staying.”

“I never said you were,” Hardy said, looking around the room for whatever it was he needed. “And remind me when we get back—I want a damned screwdriver, even if I have to build my own.”

Ellie nodded. “Seems only right.”

“You're planning on leaving,” Jenny said, swallowing as she watched him rifling through the stuff on the counter. “Just like he did. He left, but I was dead, I know that so I can't blame him, but you're my brother, and you'd just leave me, too?”

Hardy halted in his search but didn't look up. “Why the hell would you want to come with me?”

“You're my brother, aren't you?”

“Possibly.” Hardy resumed his rummaging. “Blood isn't everything.”

“It's something,” she said, coming over to touch his arm. “It's more than I've had or ever known. I was hoping to learn so much from Dad, but he's gone. You're here. I was born for war, but he showed me something else, and I want more.”

Ellie winced. “Jenny, we can't take you to your father. He... He's at a point in time where he doesn't know you. He hasn't been to this planet, not yet. You could be risking having him not come here at all, which would mean you wouldn't be... born.”

“I don't have to see my father if I can spend some time with my brother. I can still do the planet saving and the rescuing and the running after that.”

Hardy shook his head. “No. Where we're from doesn't have that kind of technology. We got here by accident, and if we go back there, you'd be Earth-bound. You don't want that.”

“You're Earth-bound, aren't you?” Jenny asked. “She said you help people and defeat monsters. I could do what you do.”

Hardy stopped, standing stock still. He swallowed, distinctly uncomfortable. “That's not what I do.”

“Isn't it?” Jenny frowned, turning back to Ellie. “Did you lie about that?”

“No,” she said. “It's just... different. He was a policeman. He investigated cases, arrested criminals, saved people from being their victims in the future. And he may have saved the world a few times, but he would never admit it.”

Hardy crossed the room to her, and she swore he was about to shake her senseless. “That is not funny. I didn't ever—”

“What did you do at Canary Wharf, then?”

“Damn you,” he said, taking hold of her elbow like he meant to draw her away from the other woman for a proper tongue lashing. “You're twisting this all about, and you have to stop it. Now. Because I am not him, and I haven't saved anyone.”

“Yes, you have,” Ellie said, unable to deny that. “Sir—”

“Don't hurt her,” Jenny said, reaching to stop him, and then Ellie felt everything around them shift.

* * *

“They must have gotten the paperwork,” Jack said, putting a hand on the Doctor's arm as though it would be a comfort. “You walked out of there with Lee and Claire without an incident, so it worked. I mean, you still have to go back in time to start the paperwork or at least fake it, but we're good, right?”

The Doctor didn't look back at him, leaning against the TARDIS doors with a frown.

“He was just getting a few papers,” Rose said. “I'm sure he's fine. He's got Ellie with him, and he'll be back any minute. Right, Doctor?”

He didn't answer. He couldn't. Oh, he had a gob, and he should be able to talk, to say anything, but the resounding silence in his head was carrying over like a weight, keeping him from managing any kind of response.

His son was gone. Again. He couldn't feel Alec in his head.

Eventually, he'd lose that sense because he was going to forget him, but he hadn't done that yet. He still remembered his son and the tell-tale sensation of his presence. It was gone.

“Oh, no,” Jack said. “Tell me this isn't what I think it is.”

“What?”

Jack turned back to face Rose. “I gave Alec the vortex manipulator when we were in the—when we were gone. The enemy was coming, and I wanted to make sure he made it out. He's so much more important than I am.”

“But...” Rose choked a bit. “Isn't that dangerous for him? He gets sick when he travels like that. Why would he do that again?”

“He wouldn't, Rose. That's the thing—that vortex manipulator, it's like it has a mind of its own.”

“Impossible,” the Doctor said. “It requires specific coordinates. Spacial temporal coordinates. It has to be precise, or you would end up scattered about the universe.”

“That's pretty much what your son said, but Doc, I'm not lying. It's activating on its own—and just about every time it has, Alec was involved. It took me to him, twice. It took him somewhere else several times. On purpose, once, maybe, but the other times? Not so much. I wanted you to look at it, but we keep getting distracted.”

The Doctor frowned. “That shouldn't be possible, Jack. The device isn't sentient. Oh, I know that they did want to make vortex manipulators genetically keyed to a specific user. If they were able to do that, it could explain why Alec's proximity could be a trigger, but how would it know where to send him? How could it do any of what you said? It can't.”

“Could someone have... programmed it to do that?”

The Doctor looked back at Rose. “I... I suppose in some sense it might be possible to program it to a point, but the person doing it would have to have knowledge of the time stream unlike anyone I've ever known. I'm not even sure a Time Lord would be capable of the sort of thing you're suggesting.”

He heard a noise and turned back out the doors, leaving them behind a moment later as three people appeared in front of the ship. Ellie cursed up a storm, and the blonde next to her seemed to be laughing.

“Bloody hell,” Alec moaned, dropping to the ground. He groaned and curled up against himself. The Doctor almost fell back with the overwhelming sense of anguish coming off his son. He forced himself past it, going to his side.

“Easy now,” the Doctor said. “Try not to move. You need to lie still, give your Time Lord half a chance to heal you.”

“Get... that thing... away from me,” Alec ground out, and the Doctor frowned, but then he shook his head, realizing that his son wasn't talking about him—he meant the vortex manipulator.

“It's fine. I've got it. You'll be fine. Just take a minute and breathe.”

“Why is it hurting him so much?” Ellie asked, coming closer to him. “Not that I want to do that again, but he wasn't that bad when his heart was failing.”

“I'm not sure,” the Doctor said. He lifted up the vortex manipulator. “I was blaming it on his hybrid genetics, but it may be more than that. And I think it's time we got a good look at this thing.”

“Uh, Doc, we have some company and a few deliveries to make.”

“The stasis fields will hold, and while I'm sure you'd love to flirt your way to anything, Jack, I'm a bit more concerned with my son's life at the moment,” the Doctor said, pointing his screwdriver at the manipulator, scanning for anything out of the ordinary on it.

“I'm your daughter.”

“What?” the Doctor asked, staring at the blonde in confusion. “No. That's not possible. I know it's not. You—I can feel Alec. I can't feel you. Something about you—you are not my daughter.”

“You said that before,” she whispered. “I thought we were past that.”

“Miller told you,” Alec said. “He hasn't been there yet. He doesn't know you. And no. She's not... like me. She's... progenation. She was made by progenation.”

“Oh,” the Doctor said. “An echo. No sum of knowledge, no code, no shared history, no shared suffering...”

She edged toward them, giving Alec a frown. “He has that?”

“The suffering, at least,” the Doctor said, remembering his glimpse into his son's mind. “And some of the knowledge.”

“Yeah, he said he got that from your dog,” Ellie muttered, and the Doctor laughed despite the circumstances. “It told him bloody bedtime stories.”

That made the Doctor smile. “Good old K-9. Loyal and true, he is. Not much technology can say that. The TARDIS, of course, and my screwdriver.”

“You owe him one of those,” Ellie and Jack said at the same time. She frowned at him, and he grinned back at her.

“One thing that is not loyal, though, is this,” the Doctor said, returning his attention to the object in his hand, the source of so much trouble. “All these trips across time, crossing over timelines... And this. This seemingly ordinary vortex manipulator.”

“Doctor?”

He flipped over the panel, looking at the faded logo barely visible under one of the leather flaps. “No. It can't be.”

“What?”

“Bad Wolf.”


	38. Time for Delays

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor tries to avoid discussing Bad Wolf by dealing with Claire and Joe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now that I've gotten this far, I'm so afraid that I will mess up the explanation and it won't be worth all it took to get here.

* * *

_“I looked into the TARDIS, and the TARDIS looked into me...”_

_“I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself. I take the words, I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here...”_

_“I want you safe. My Doctor. Protected from the false god...”_

_“You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space. Every single atom of your existence, and I divide them...”_

_“Everything must come to dust. All things. Everything dies. The Time War ends.”_

* * *

“What is Bad Wolf?”

The Doctor gave Rose a side glance, a bit worried about pulling up all of those memories right now. Rose didn't know all that had happened—he was glad of it, since the time vortex was a dangerous thing to be messing about in—and he would prefer if it stayed that way, but he didn't think that would be possible. As much as sharing that knowledge was risky, there would be no keeping it to himself now that he'd made the mistake of saying the words aloud.

“Not something we can discuss here,” the Doctor said. “Come on. Everyone into the TARDIS. We have a delivery to make.”

“Deliveries,” Ellie said, and the Doctor looked back at her. “Oh, we met up with Brian—who, by the way, seems to hate your son even more now, nice job there—and he told us that they'd matched Joe to Keith's crime scene. So we can take him to Cardiff now.”

“Brilliant,” the Doctor said. _“Molto bene._ That's it, then. We'll start with a quick jaunt to Fladus and return via Cardiff. Nice itinerary, if slightly boring.”

“Why Fladus first?” Ellie asked, frowning. “Cardiff is closer.”

“For the TARDIS, the trip is the same. Instant dematerialization and rematerialization. Poof. Here then there, almost like magic. Science, though. Brilliant science,” the Doctor explained. “And we need to go to Fladus first because I honestly don't know that Claire's reimprinting will last, so I'd rather drop her off and minimize the risk.”

“Sounds good to me,” Jack said, kneeling down next to Alec. “Let's get you up and moving, shall we? Bit surprised you haven't already done that, stubborn as you are.”

“Shut it,” Alec groused, getting up with Jack and Ellie's help. He grimaced, but he made the journey to the TARDIS on his own, refusing anyone else's efforts to assist him. He was the first one inside, followed closely by Jack and Ellie, who were still worried about him. Rose hesitated, but he waved her on. He didn't want to be alone with her just now, didn't want to talk about Bad Wolf or the gamestation.

“Am I allowed to come, too?” the new blonde asked, frowning. “It's just... you didn't want me at first, and then you said I could come, but I... things happened, and I didn't. And my brother... he didn't want me to come, either.”

The Doctor tried to force a smile. “Well, thing about your... um... brother. He's... well, he is a bit difficult. I don't mind so much. I've been difficult myself, lots and lots. Every regeneration, in fact. Still that's not an excuse, just a bit of information. I'm not sure what—you know, I think we'd better go. Yes, we just need to go. That's all. We just... go. So, in the TARDIS. We'll sort the rest of it later.”

She smiled at him, bouncing a little as she went inside, and he went at a more sedate pace, still troubled by her existence. She didn't feel the same as Alec, and he wasn't sure why. She was no less real than he was, and it wasn't as though he should have some reason to dislike her—he should have more reason to reject Alec, truth be told.

He went over to his son's side, joining him at the central console. “You thinking about driving?”

Alec snorted. “You said you lost Fladus, hid it from the rest of the universe to keep them safe from the Flyboln. How the bloody hell would I get us there even if I wanted to?”

“Perhaps I wanted to see if you remembered.”

“Or you're trying to pry without prying,” Alec said. “I'm fine. Or as close to it as my messed up genetics get. Now are you going to fly this thing or not?”

“Not,” the Doctor said, nudging him. “Go on. The TARDIS knows where she's going. She just wants you to get the process started.”

“She does not.”

“She thinks you're a better driver than I am,” the Doctor said. “I've just been insulted by my ship, and I'm not happy about it.”

“You bloody liar.”

“Ask her if you don't believe me,” the Doctor told him. He started on the sequence to take them into the vortex, deliberately making a mistake as he did. His son reached over and pushed the right button, and the Doctor grinned in response. “See? Better driver.”

His son pulled him close enough to whisper in his ear. “I'm not in the mood to be your distraction. I don't care what this Bad Wolf thing is or why it seems to scare you so much—I'm not to be used for that, are clear? I'm not a trained monkey, set to perform your whims. I am your son—maybe—but that doesn't make me entertainment.”

The Doctor frowned. He didn't like the sound of that maybe. This wasn't a matter for maybes. Up until recently, Alec had accepted the Doctor as his father. Something had changed that, and the Doctor didn't like it one bit.

“We need to talk.”

“Fladus first.”

* * *

“So... exactly what happens if Lee wakes up one morning and decides that he doesn't want to stay with Claire and a bunch of alien gas clouds?” Ellie asked, giving the TARDIS doors another glance. The Doctor and Jack had gone out there alone to deliver Lee and Claire, not that she'd wanted to go out there for that. Rose and Jenny looked a bit put out, more Jenny than Rose, since Jenny was being denied the opportunity to go out on the first alien planet she'd been to besides her own.

Ellie tried not to think about how that thought was even remotely normal for her now.

“He can't.”

Ellie folded her arms over her chest, staring down Hardy in a way that was very familiar to her by now. “No, he can. He's being dumped on an alien planet for the good of mankind, but he can still think for himself. He's actually being more noble than I thought he could be.”

“He feels guilty. Not the same thing,” Hardy told her. “And when I say he can't, I mean... he can't go anywhere. He can't leave. Flyboln don't leave their planet except by the sort of accident that landed Claire on Earth through the rift. That shouldn't have happened. This planet is... like nails on a chalkboard.”

“Is that what I feel?” Jenny asked. “Something was bothering me, but I couldn't tell what it was. It's unnerving, like having bugs crawl all over my skin. I wanted to get out because I thought it would be better if I was, but it would be worse out there, wouldn't it?”

Hardy nodded. “Aye.”

Rose frowned. “What is it? What's wrong now? Because if you're sick and maybe she is, too—”

“Calm down,” Hardy told her. “This planet... I think it's out of sync with the rest of space and time. Just a fraction, something so small no one would notice.”

“Except for Time Lords,” Rose said. “So both you and Jenny can sense this. And the Doctor, too, but he must not care or be used to it or he's just better at hiding it than you two.”

“Does this... sense get any easier?” Jenny asked. “I didn't feel it on Messaline, but I suppose I wouldn't have, would I? All I knew there was the war. I'd been programmed to fight in it, and I would have if he hadn't shown me a different way.”

“It does seem to be possible to shut out the sense to a degree,” Hardy said, and Ellie knew that he'd done it for years, pushing it out of his head and pretending he was just human. He'd believed he was, and he seemed to be. He'd been a perfect picture of a grumpy wanker, an irritating job stealing knob.

“So it gets easier?”

“No.”

She frowned. Ellie rolled her eyes. “Stop scaring the girl.”

“I'm not. This is a reality she has to live with. I do, and Daisy does, too. Her sense doesn't seem to be as strong, but it still would have took her if that other timeline had—the point is, Miller, it doesn't go away. It will always be there.”

Rose frowned. “Do you think your time sense is part of what makes you so sick going through the vortex?”

“Why should it? The Doctor didn't seem to think it would have mattered, and Jenny over there was fine.” Hardy shook his head. “Other Time Lords handle it fine. Assuming the Doctor has done it, which I think he has.”

“Yeah, but they're full Time Lord, right?” Rose pressed. “Because even though she was made in a machine, this machine made her out of only him. Only Time Lord DNA. You've got human DNA. You're half human. The Doctor said it was your genetics, and it is but it's your sense of time that's the problem, not your body itself. It's just... manifesting like an illness—like stress what makes you sick or when you're really upset and get sick 'cause of it.”

“Interesting theory, Rose,” the Doctor said as he came back in the doorway. “I wonder if you might not be onto something there. After all, when the alternate timeline tried to assert itself, you were sick then.”

“I was being erased from existence. Of course I was bloody sick. And did you get Jack killed again?”

“Oh. That. Um... yes,” the Doctor said, grimacing. “Apparently my presence was most unwelcome on the planet, and I will not be returning any time soon, if at all. It's fine. The TARDIS will keep any of the gas from coming in, and Jack did make it almost all the way to the doors before dying this time.”

“Bloody hell,” Ellie muttered. Then she stilled. “Wait. How is it Jack can't die? Was that ever said? Were we told how that's possible?”

“Bad Wolf.”

* * *

“You need to start explaining this Bad Wolf thing,” Ellie said, and the Doctor nodded, but Jack could see he was trying to avoid it. He was definitely stalling—that was obvious, almost painfully so—but he couldn't keep it from Rose forever, no matter how much he might want to. “Now.”

“No, now we're off to Cardiff,” the Doctor said with a false grin, sending them off into the vortex with a flip of a lever. “One last delivery to make.”

“Don't you have to separate Joe from his shadow?” Rose asked, frowning. “And put the shadow somewhere where it can't harm anyone?”

“Already done,” Jack said, gesturing to the man in the containment field across the room. “Yeah, see, our friend there thought the Flyboln was a better choice, and the Doctor let it think he hadn't noticed, but he left it behind with a bunch of gaseous clouds on a planet outside normal space and time.”

Ellie rubbed her forehead. “I almost want you to be joking. Only I don't, because I want this done. I want Joe out of all our lives. If his shadow's gone, then it's safe to put him in prison, only none of us knew that was what you were doing, Doctor, and that is not—oh, you bastard. You knew, too, didn't you, you knob.”

Alec gave her a baleful look. “We spent the entire time they were gone discussing how I am aware of space and time, and you think I wouldn't be notice the shadow leaving with Lee Ashworth? There is a part of him that feels guilty over Pippa, more so now than before, and his relationship with Claire, and wouldn't a shadow that feeds on emotions just love that?”

“You didn't notice a shadow on Joe before,” she snapped back. “You didn't, or you'd have seen him for the killer a lot sooner than you did.”

“What do you want from me, Miller? I couldn't have stopped your husband from doing what he did. I didn't know about him or the alien. I'm half-alien, not a damned god.”

“You were also dying at the time,” Rose said, and Alec turned to glare at her. She winced, but she stood her ground. “Your one heart was failing, and the Doctor said you wouldn't have made it much longer on the pacemaker.”

“It's not an excuse.”

“It kind of is,” Jack said. “Dying can be very distracting. Trust me. I would know. It even gets to me, and I know I'll come back from it.”

“And, again, really past time to discuss whatever this Bad Wolf is.”

The TARDIS stopped with a lurch, distracting most of its passengers. Jack was ready for it, but the new girl had a rough go this time around. He would have crossed over to help her, but the Doctor stopped him, hand on his arm. 

“Time for you to play your part.”

Jack frowned. “What? It's not like you need me to die again to keep everyone safe.”

“Someone has to take Joe into the station, and it can't be Alec. Can't be Ellie, either. That would give possible grounds for the courts to free him a second time, and we have worked too hard to have that happen,” the Doctor insisted. “You go drop him off. And then I suppose we had better go back to Broadchurch.”

“You are not leaving me behind,” Jack said. The Doctor started to protest, but Jack held up his hand. “No, I know I'm not in my right time, and my timeline hasn't stabilized yet, but I still have a stake in this. I want answers, too, and if I have to, I'll forget them, but right now, I'd really like to know what's going on.”

“Fine. Just take Joe, and we'll talk when you get back.”

Jack nodded, taking hold of Joe and started down the ramp. He pushed the doors open ahead of them and started across the courtyard. He wasn't sure if the Doctor would approve of what he was about to do, but he still thought it was the right thing to do. Joe could still cause trouble, going through another trial and dragging up whatever it was that got him off before, but even so, Jack didn't think the threat of what the Doctor could do was the right kind of insurance, and he wouldn't put it past the other man to use what he knew of Alec's half-alien status against them. No, better he stayed silent. That way Alec was safer.

He led Joe away from the TARDIS, waiting until they were out of sight to take out a pill and hold it out to the other man. “You'll want this.”

“Go to hell.”

“I've been there,” Jack told him. “It no longer scares me. You, on the other hand... you're going to want that.”

* * *

“I still want to talk to you.”

Hardy grunted, not looking at his father. He kept thinking of the Doctor as his father, even though he knew that might not be the case. He had almost never acknowledged Stuart Hardy as his father, even when he had only the vaguest suspicion that he wasn't, more wishful thinking than anything he could prove, though if he'd been more persistent and looked at the actual records instead of accepting his mother hiding her own copy of the license, he might have. Still, he'd never wanted or needed a father, so why was he still calling the Doctor that when he wasn't sure that was what he was?

He supposed it was better than thinking of himself as a clone.

“Thought we were waiting for Jack.”

“For Bad Wolf,” the Doctor said, “and he already knows, I think. I can't be sure, but I get that sense from him that he did know. I think he also might know what's bothering you.”

Hardy frowned. “Why not let it be the obvious?”

“Jenny?” the Doctor shook his head. “No, though that disconnect that was there before isn't there now. I think I sense her. More like what I get from Daisy than from you, which is still strange, but better, I think.”

Hardy shook his head. “I'd rather you didn't have it. That I didn't. When you forget...”

The Doctor pulled him into another bloody hug. “I know. And I wish I could find another way, but even as much as I care about you know—it's too dangerous. I... I think I'd try to keep you, knowing what I do now.”

Hardy stepped back, staring at him in confusion. “What?”

“Oh, I know. I'm not one for nappies or anything like that, but you... You are special. And I think Jenny over there thinks I'm playing favorites. I suppose I am. I'll forget her, too, but right now that's not as hard to accept as it is with you. I know you. I've gotten hints of your potential, the things you can do, and I know you've already done them—”

“You looked at my record, didn't you?”

“I didn't need to,” the Doctor reminded him. “Still, it's nice to have more ways of knowing you, since I wasn't there.”

“You're getting soppy.”

“Oi, I am not,” the Doctor objected. He turned back as the doors opened and Jack stepped inside.

“Tell me I didn't miss anything.”

“Just those two doing a bit of bonding again,” Rose said, giving him a grin. “It's cute, actually.”

Hardy looked at the Doctor. He knew his father was going to try and avoid the conversation again, so he reached over to the console, pushing a button and pulling a lever and hoping to hell he hadn't killed them all in an attempt to send them back into the vortex.

“Not bad.”

“The TARDIS has had worse drivers,” the Doctor agreed. “And no, I'm not talking about me.”

“Enough jokes,” Hardy said, his voice coming out gentler than he'd expected. He would have thought it would be worse, sharper with frustration. “Tell us about Bad Wolf. What is it?”

“Rose,” Jack said, and the Doctor frowned as the woman herself stared at him. “It's true. He told me that in my timeline. It was more than just the name on the gamestation or the project that Slitheen was making to blow up the Earth. Bad Wolf is you, Rose.”

“What?” Rose shook her head, turning to the Doctor, pleading with him to deny what Jack said. “Doctor, that's not—it was just words. Words connecting us. Bad Wolf across time, and it reminded me to get back to you, but that's all it was.”

“It's a bit more complicated than that,” the Doctor told her. “Rose, when you came back to the gamestation, you didn't do it alone. You... You looked into the heart of the TARDIS. You took the time vortex inside you. And you used it.”

“I killed the Daleks?”

“And you brought Jack back to life. You never wanted to lose him, so he can't die.”

“Oh.”

“It's okay, Rose. It really is,” Jack told her. “I've found it comes in handy, and I don't blame you. I never did.”

“But the Doctor is terrified,” she said, her face full of anguish. “You're scared of what I was and what I did. I killed all those Daleks. I'm a murderer and a monster, is that it?”

“He'd be a bloody hypocrite if that was why he's worried,” Hardy told her. He frowned. “Wait. The time vortex. She not only had the power of that thing, she had the knowledge. All of space and time.”

“Including you,” Jack said. “The Doctor's son. She knew you'd exist, that you'd be needed.”

“Aye,” Hardy said, feeling uncomfortable, “but what for?”


	39. Time for Discord

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor's explanation doesn't help much, and things get complicated again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that I promised I was starting the explanation, and I am, I swear. I just knew that if the whole explanation got out, then one more important event wouldn't get dealt with, and it is kind of... big, so I had to. It's just been a bit of a mess trying to sort out how it would work, because it's not as simple as inserting someone else into the flow, as much as I thought it was when I started out to do it.
> 
> Still, I think I know how to address a few things now, and that should be a good thing. Knowing me, though, it might not be.

* * *

_“The truth, then.”_

_“I don't think you actually want it.”_

_“Maybe not, but there comes a time when there is no avoiding it. It can't be changed, and it still affects you, even if you don't know what it is. That's the trouble with the truth. It's still there, even when you believe the lie. And I don't believe the lie. Not anymore.”_

* * *

“There's still something you have to change, isn't there?” Jack asked, looking over at Rose, who stared back at him, shaking her head. The other women were quiet, still, both of them waiting and listening but not moving, not like Rose. Her disbelief was all over her, and it looked a bit painful.

“If by that you mean whatever it was that caused me to exist in the first place, yes, I think there is,” Alec muttered. He ran a hand over his face, letting out a breath.

“What?” Rose asked. “No. I know that it seems crazy, but you—no. I mean, you don't have to—you can't. You just... can't.”

“I think you're being a bit hasty,” Jack said. “Why would you jump to the conclusion that you're the wound in time that has to be healed? You're the fix, not the problem.”

“And how the bloody hell do you know that? You're out of sync with your time, and we still don't know how I got here. All we know is that Bad Wolf—who is apparently Rose over there—has some part in it. We don't even know what that was,” Alec said, shaking his head. “I said it before, Miller. I'm tired. Tired of the lies and half-truths and being dragged across time.”

“So you take a rest and we figure this out,” Ellie said as she went to his side. “You are too damned stubborn to quit before you know the truth, and we're finally getting there. We've set things right now. Joe is in prison where he belongs, and he can't hurt anyone else. Claire and Lee—we've made sure they can't do Kate any more harm, can't do anyone any, and it's almost better than a trial for them. You're not done yet. I don't believe that.”

He gave her a look. “Miller—”

“I do think we could all use a bit of a break,” the Doctor said, reaching for the controls. “Besides, Jenny would like a chance to actually get out of the TARDIS, right? Can't go too wrong with a beach side town. Resort area. Very nice. Wonderful ice cream.”

“Ice cream?”

“Wonderful creation,” the Doctor told her. “You absolutely have to try it. Not quite an edible ball bearing, but still amazing. Besides, Daisy is there, and you should probably meet her as well. Or not. I'm not entirely sure how best to handle any of this. I have to forget, Rose has to forget—and it would be nice if she remembered—from before, not from later. It's hard to be sure if this is—it could mean that something is due to happen in the future. Or that it has happened. Is happening. It's very timey-wimey.”

“My head hurts,” Ellie muttered. “Can we please start to make sense again?”

“Broadchurch,” Alec said, and she looked at him with a frown. “You want your boys, the Latimers deserve to know your husband is in prison, and my daughter will be worried by now. Whatever else this is... it can wait.”

“We're not done yet,” Jack said. “I, for one, still have questions for you.”

“And I don't care,” Alec told him, reaching over to the console. He stopped just before pushing the button, but the Doctor nodded, twisting a lever next to the button first.

“I'm proud of the way you picked up on this, by the way,” the Doctor told him as the TARDIS started through the vortex again. “Really, I am. Flying the TARDIS is not easy, and I am not the best of teachers. I'm impressed.”

“I'm not so sure you should be,” Alec told him, making the Doctor frown again.

“Wait,” Jack said, shaking his head. “You didn't believe her about that, did you? I thought you said that you didn't. You don't actually think she's right and you are a metacrisis.”

“I said I didn't know.”

The Doctor shook his head. “No. That's not even possible. Well, it happened, once. Almost killed me and the man they tried to—well, that's not important. What is important is that metacrises are not sustainable. If that's what you were—”

“My heart would have failed and I'd be dead by now?” Alec suggested, and the Doctor winced. Jack didn't like it much, either. He didn't think it was that simple.

“You are so much more than a copy of him,” Jack told Alec. “And I'm not just saying that.”

He would have said more, but the TARDIS started to land, and he was almost knocked down when it did. Again. Maybe the ship still had something against him, though he thought they were past the running away bit, even if that was technically in the future.

“K-9 will have told Daisy and Sarah Jane that we are back,” the Doctor said, crossing to the doors. He pushed them open to show the same backyard they'd landed in before. “So you'll see them soon enough. I suppose I owe my daughter an ice cream now. Rose, you with us?”

“Yeah,” Rose answered, her voice quiet, but she went with him and Jenny with a smile that almost looked like she meant it.

“Hardy?”

“You go on, Miller,” Alec said, not moving toward the door. “The Doctor's right. They'll find me.”

She sighed. “I suppose it's up to me to tell Beth and Mark about Joe?”

“If it's not in the papers already,” Alec answered, and she frowned. “Did you miss how everyone kept insisted he'd missed his mark by a full year? We were gone for hours instead of minutes before, and you think I've done better with it? Didn't know you had so much confidence in me.”

“I don't,” she said. Then her eyes widened. “Oh, God. The boys. I have to go.”

She rushed out the doors. Jack would have smiled had he missed the look of satisfaction on the other man's face.

“You did that on purpose. We're not late at all, are we?”

“No.”

* * *

“You're not planning on stealing the TARDIS, are you?”

“Wouldn't do me any good,” Hardy answered. “I wouldn't know where to go. Or when to go. The only place I could think of is back to the Library, where we were, and I suppose I could try and talk to that professor, but I doubt she'd give me specifics if she had them. I may have—in her opinion—ruined her life by saving it.”

“Because he would have found her and had a relationship with her to get her to make that sacrifice at the library,” Jack said, grimacing.

“I doubt it would have been that cold blooded. He's not that sort of man, even if he is an alien. He would have cared or at least made himself think he did, and her emotions were genuine. He couldn't fake them.”

“You're still defending him.”

“What do you want from me?” Hardy asked. “It's not like it just shuts off. Once I started thinking of him as my father, things got... complicated. And now they're worse.”

Jack nodded. “I can see that, but just because one woman suggested you might be a metacrisis doesn't mean you are. Though... that was why you took that side trip and ended up finding your sister, isn't it? You wanted to prove you're not a metacrisis.”

“Something like that.”

“I might be able to help with that,” Jack told him, and Hardy eyed him, suspicious. “I'm not joking. I thought about something earlier. It's been nagging at me for a while, ever since it happened, but between the dying and the rest of that year... I did and didn't have enough time to think about it. I tried to ask Martha, and she told me a bit, but she really didn't want to talk about it.”

Hardy shook his head. “If this is about the Master again—”

“It is, but it isn't.” Jack glanced back toward the doors. “Do you remember Harold Saxon getting elected?”

Hardy frowned. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Just... go with me for a minute,” Jack pleaded. “Do you remember Saxon?”

“'Course I remember Saxon,” Hardy almost snapped. “Everyone wanted to vote for him. Like bloody sheep they were. Kept saying that he 'sounded good.' Which was horse pucky.”

“Nice.”

“I blame Tess. She refused to let me say the other thing around our daughter, and it became a bad habit,” Hardy said. “What does Saxon have to do with anything? I mean, I never liked him. Or that archangel project he set up. Actually went back on my own word and—what is the point of this?”

“Just keep humoring me a bit more,” Jack said. “You didn't trust Saxon or archangel. What did you do when he got elected?”

“The hell does it matter what I did?”

“It does to me. It... it has to do with my timeline, so tell me—what did you do?”

Hardy rubbed his forehead, not sure he wanted to admit to any of this. Tess had thought he was barmy, and he almost hadn't convinced her to let him take Daisy with him, even though he'd been sure it was necessary. In the end, it was nothing, and Tess would have been livid if she'd known why he'd actually gone—it had nothing to do with a problem with the estate's caretakers. “Went to Scotland.”

“You're in Scotland a lot when this sort of thing happens. First with Canary Wharf, and now with the Master and the Year that Never Was. Something about that place, then. Something important. Why go there?”

“Why the hell are you pushing this? I told you—when Canary Wharf happened, I was there for a funeral.”

“It matters. Trust me on this. I know you don't, but for a second, pretend you do, because I'm almost convinced that despite not knowing what you are, you still helped save the world back then,” Jack told him, and Hardy snorted. That didn't make sense. “Why Scotland?”

“The house. Stuart Hardy's house. It... It has security measures. It could block things. Like the archangel network.”

“I knew it,” Jack said, smiling in triumph. “The resistance in Scotland, the reason Martha escaped... I think that was you.”

“It couldn't have been. I didn't exist in that timeline, remember?”

Jack shook his head. “You shouldn't have, you're right, but I think somehow you did. It's something that's been bothering me since I heard about it—the Master taunted us with every close call she had, and she thought maybe she'd found Torchwood Two, but she was in the wrong place for that. I think somehow you were there. In both timelines.”

“Not possible.”

“You don't know what part of my timeline was trying to assert itself. Maybe it was the part with the Family of Blood. Maybe they killed you or Daisy in that timeline. I don't know, but the fact that you remember Saxon—and I'm betting others do, too—means that the Master _does_ come back here.”

“Don't say that like you're pleased.”

“I'm not,” Jack assured him. “I'm really not. Because he was bad enough when the Doctor had very little to lose—just me, Martha got out and Rose was safe in a parallel world—but now there's you. And Daisy. And Jenny. And Rose. And he's met Donna and apparently traveled with her. Even that River woman... No, he's got way too much to lose this time.”

“If I were to mess with that timeline, too, I'd make it worse. Assuming—and I'm not saying I agree with you—that somehow I was shielded enough from the Master, crossing the timeline would make him aware of me.”

“I know. I'm not saying you should. I'm just pretty sure you led the most successful resistance against him, and it meant Martha's survival to undo everything the Master did. The Year that Never Was. You made that possible.”

“And made it impossible as well. Rose stayed on this side of the parallel world and when I met Martha... well, I stopped him from using her to distract the Judoon. He said he was just giving her one trip to say thank you.”

“That's all I was supposed to get, too, but I was there for a lot longer,” Jack said. “You might not have ruined anything. We don't know.”

“That doesn't change anything. We still don't know how I was born or what Bad Wolf has to do with this,” Hardy said, shaking his head. “Nothing has changed.”

“Look, if Rose was involved, then she did it for the Doctor. Whatever it was, she did it for him. So however you came into existence, whatever you are, you're supposed to be here. He needs you.”

Hardy snorted. “Did you miss the part where I have a sister? Full blooded Time Lady who can regenerate, no doubt about it—she did. We still don't know what I am or if I can do that. And no, we're not testing to find out.”

“I wasn't going to suggest that. More like... you should help yourself to one of his spare screwdrivers and see if we can find anything else out about my vortex manipulator.”

* * *

“This is sooo good,” Jenny said, eating her ice cream with the kind of enthusiasm that Rose knew from this Doctor, her second Doctor. His daughter was acting like a kid, just like he did. Only, of course, she looked as old as Rose was, maybe older. Rose was trying not to be bothered by it, but she was. She was more bothered by Jenny than she was by Alec.

She told herself—again—that Jenny was his daughter, and it wasn't like that, wasn't even like Rose should be jealous. She was glad the Doctor had a family and that it was growing so that he wasn't alone. He needed people, and while Rose would give him forever, it wasn't like she could. She was human. Someday she'd die.

“Can I get another and take it to my brother?” Jenny asked the Doctor. “Please? He needs one. I'm sure of it. I don't think I've ever seen him smile, even though you do.”

The Doctor smiled at her. “I suppose it can't hurt. You might finish yours, first, though, because you should probably take two. One for Daisy, too.”

“You keep saying that name. Who is Daisy?”

“Oh, I can't spoil that,” the Doctor said, still grinning. “I think you'll like her, though. Go on, get your deliveries. Have fun. Try not to drop them.”

“Thank you,” she told him, walking way with a bounce in her step, so happy, and Rose envied her that, because she was not at all happy right now.

“Doctor,” Rose began, swallowing down a lump in her throat. “I... What did I do? As Bad Wolf, I mean. I killed the Daleks. I know that now. And I brought Jack back to life, forever. And... I killed you, didn't I?”

“Rose, I didn't—”

“I did,” Rose insisted. “You're going to tell me you didn't die, but you did. The man you were before, he died. You're him, but you're different, too, and I killed that other you.”

“I chose to die to save you, and I don't regret it,” the Doctor told her, reaching out to touch her cheek. “Look at me. I don't. You saved me more than you know. You heard my son say it. I burned Gallifrey. All of my people. I did that to end the war, and that was not the only terrible thing I did. That's just the worst. I... I didn't want to survive, and if I hadn't had you, this wonderful human who helped me see the good in the universe again, I'd really have been lost. I don't know what I'd be without you , and it honestly scares me because there is a darkness in me, the same darkness that made destroying Gallifrey possible, and I... I don't want that ever to get control.”

She put her hand over his. “I don't want that, either.”

“Which may be why you intervened, again,” the Doctor said. He let go, turning away from her. “I'm not sure, but if Jack is right about the vortex manipulator and the way it was activating on its own—it's possible you saw something in all of time and space that told you where Alec might be needed and provided a means for him to be there.”

She frowned. “I—how could I? I didn't even know he existed.”

“I don't know,” the Doctor said. “No, wait. I might know. That photograph. Alec had my scarf. He and Daisy were wearing it in that picture. I met him before, in my fourth body. I gave him the scarf to hold, and he disappeared with it, cheeky little thing. I didn't know that he was my son, but I recognized the Time Lord in him. I asked him why he wasn't in the Academy, and he told me it was full of—well, his phrasing was quite unique and very profane. I was amused, which was half the reason I gave him the scarf to hold. I just assumed he was dead, but the TARDIS, Rose. She knew he was still out there, and you merged with her. Of course. She had a part in it. Clever girl. Girls. Both of you.”

Rose shook her head. “Are you sure? Because... what if we did something very wrong? Something that could break the universe or something? He has crossed a lot of timelines, and you're not supposed to do that. And the vortex manipulator _was_ hurting him—”

“It was pulling on his time sense, as you thought. He changed things, and those changes are still echoing through time—and remember, this hasn't been set in stone yet, none of what we've done. Of course it hurts. Too much is in flux at once.”

“Then I could have killed him.”

The Doctor flinched. “I... I don't—No. The TARDIS would have countered that. She... she cares for her own, and you're both hers. All of you are.”

“Yeah, but... if I did all that, why didn't I make it so he was safe enough to leave him with you for his entire life instead of messing up Sarah Jane's? Why didn't I make sure that you remembered him when you met up with him? Why bring you to find him when you can't be allowed to remember him?”

“You had the time vortex in your head and the TARDIS helping you, but you were not an omnipotent god. You did what you could, but it was starting to burn your mind, and you couldn't counter every possible timeline he had. And remember—Sarah Jane considers him her greatest adventure. Her life wasn't ruined by him. It was enhanced.”

Rose tried to nod, but she couldn't. “I don't know, Doctor. I just... I keep thinking I must have really done something wrong.”

* * *

“I brought ice cream.”

Hardy looked up from the vortex manipulator and over at Jenny, frowning. He shook his head, going back to work. He didn't know all the functions of the sonic screwdriver, and he could use a course in it, and so far he'd managed, but he didn't think he could get to any hidden files or programming with his limited knowledge of the actual tool.

“It's for you,” Jenny said, holding it out to him.

He snorted. “No, it isn't. What is it with females and thinking a 99 butters someone up?”

“I'll take it,” Jack said, grinning at Jenny. “And ignore him.”

“No, ignore him,” Hardy said. “Really, it's for the best. He flirts with anything, so don't flatter yourself. No, do, in the sense that you can do so much better than a fixed point that should be making you nauseous about now.”

“That comes from him?”

“Aye.”

“Can I still have the ice cream?” Jack asked. “It's not like it's my fault, and that is going to melt all over you if you don't pass it along to someone.”

“One was for Daisy.”

“She's not here yet,” Hardy said. He closed his eyes for a second, but he couldn't quite pin down his daughter's location through their bond. He opened his eyes again and found the ice cream in his face. “I already said no.”

“You don't like me, do you?”

“It's not about that. I'm in the middle of delicate work I don't fully understand, and you're trying to get me to take something sticky. That... and 99s remind me of my last boss and a lot of unpleasantness,” Hardy muttered, still ticked at Jenkinson for that business. Sandbrook made him vulnerable. Idiotic notion. And wanting him to bow out gracefully? That was a laugh. He'd never do that. He'd have gone down fighting if his career had been over after what Tess did. He always went out fighting.

“What are you doing?” Jenny asked, shoving both ice creams at Jack.

“The Doctor found something here to suggest Bad Wolf's involvement. I'm not sure what that means, but there's a chance there's some kind of message hidden in this thing's data banks, not just a bunch of random jumps through time.”

“And you think you can find it?”

“I don't know,” Hardy admitted. “I should probably have the Doctor look for it, since there's still a chance I could end up setting off another jump and I don't know how bad that could be even if the TARDIS is outside the vortex.”

“I'd like to help,” she said. “Though I don't know much about this sort of thing.”

“Need to get her to meet your dog,” Jack said before filling his mouth up with ice cream. Hardy rolled his eyes.

“Was that the Bad Wolf thing?” Jenny asked, leaning over him to point at it. Her finger made contact, and Hardy had a second's worth of warning before the world shifted on them again.

“Damn it,” he said, and his sister caught him before he could fall, supporting his weight on her with surprising ease. “Next time, don't touch.”

“I'm sorry,” she said. “I didn't think my finger was that close to it. And last time, I just had hold of you, not it. I don't—it doesn't make sense, but neither does that.”

Hardy lifted his head, fighting the pain to see what she did. He swore, again. He started counting, turning around to find more of the same in the sky behind him. He'd seen the moon look like it was dominating the sky before, and he'd even seen the Earth from the moon before, but now he was seeing a lot more than just one planet.

“I know I'm very new at this,” Jenny began, “but... that shouldn't be possible. Planets in the sky... it's not, right? It's not real. Some kind of trick or illusion or—”

“There's no stars,” Hardy said, swallowing as he looked around him. “This... it looks like Earth, but it can't be. There's no stars. No sun. No moon. And planets. In the sky.”

“Again, new, but this... is very bad, isn't it?”

“Aye.”


	40. Time for Stolen Planets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hardy and Jenny investigate their new surroundings and things get complicated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, if I'd known how long it would take me to get to this point or how long this story would get, I probably wouldn't have started. It's scary when they get this big, since this isn't even half the story I could tell, as each alternate timeline has its own stories and I could do a whole AU version of almost the entirety of David Tennant's run on Doctor Who at this point thanks to the changes I made. 
> 
> And I had intended to work in more details and changes here, too, but they didn't work out and it was giving me fits. I think there is some explanation here, possibly, but I'm not sure I know what I'm doing anymore if I ever did.

* * *

_“Do you think there's ever anything like a normal day?”_

_“I suppose you feel you've never had one.”_

_“Don't look at me like that. I don't want pity. I didn't say it because I was after some sort of false sympathy, either. I don't need any of that. What I need is to understand. This changes everything, and I don't know what to do.”_

_“That's a change for you, isn't it? You're used to knowing, to giving orders, to having something to work for, even if someone else gave up on it. What will you do now without any of that?”_

* * *

“How long are you planning on walking?”

Hardy shrugged. “As long as it takes to figure out where we are and what's going on or until this thing goes off again and sends us back, I suppose. Not sure of anything else I can do, so don't bother asking.”

“You don't have to be like that about it. I'm sorry I was only programmed with the genetic knowledge of generations of soldiers and not that of Time Lords, but I'm not snapping at you or trying to kill you, either,” Jenny said. “Of the two of us, you have more experience with this sort of thing, and my training says to defer to you.”

He nodded. He wasn't actually doing any of this on purpose. Miller had said it before—he got defensive and he lashed out, and while she wasn't the threat here, he was aware that he was weakened by yet another trip through space and time, and he didn't like it. Being forced to rely on anyone else annoyed him, and he barely knew this girl—woman—who was by some genetic accident possibly his sister.

“I don't do this by choice,” Hardy told her. She frowned. “The Doctor, he does. He goes where he wants and usually ends up meddling in something. Me, I've had no choice since this thing started. No, one choice, and I'd make it again because the timelines were threatening Daisy, but that doesn't mean that I want to be jumping about in time like this.”

“I didn't think you did,” Jenny said. “I think I kind of love it, but then it doesn't hurt me like it does you, so it's easier for me. And everything's new, and I don't have a Daisy, whoever she is, to worry about.”

“Daisy's my daughter.”

“You have a daughter?”

“Aye,” Hardy said, nodding. He supposed he should have made more of an effort to introduce them, not that he cared about social stuff so much, and he hadn't known that the vortex manipulator would go off again. He should have, and in that sense, he should have made sure that Daisy had her chance to meet her aunt as it was apparently the only one she was going to get.

“Is she... like me?”

“What, a biological anomaly engineered from a machine with a downloaded knowledge of a war that supposedly lasted generations in seven days?” Hardy asked, and she frowned, hurt. “No, she's not.”

“You don't have to be like that. I know you didn't—you don't like me, and you probably blame me for that thing going off—I swear I didn't touch it,” she said, putting her hand on his arm. “Least not that I remember. And if I did, I'm sorry. I'm just trying to understand. There's so much to know, and I've only just started. Everyone mentioned Daisy's name, but no one said who she was. You're the first to say she's your daughter. And that means—wait, I'm an aunt?”

“Took you long enough.”

She glared at him. “I'm not used to this. I didn't have a family before, and it's not like you're exactly welcoming either.”

Hardy shrugged. He didn't care about being welcoming. He'd accepted the Doctor, though he'd never intended to—he'd figured it didn't matter who his biological father was, not so long as his genetics had been stabilized. That should have been the end of their interaction, but it had continued, and over the course of it, he'd become attached. Just like with Miller. Proximity had bred some sort of... affection. He supposed the same thing might happen with Jenny if he was stuck with her for long enough.

He didn't figure on letting that happen. He'd be done with her as soon as he found his way back to his own proper time and his daughter.

He just needed to find out why he was here—or if it actually was an accident this time. The others seemed to put him at a place where he was needed, though he wasn't sure that was true of the moon, but bringing Jack to the Library had saved that woman's life.

He stopped in the road as he got a sense that wasn't there before, that same strange mental tingling that he got around his father. He closed his eyes, trying to pinpoint it. “This way. I think we need to go this way.”

“Are you sure?”

Hardy shook his head. Of course he wasn't. He didn't have that strong a bond with his father, and he hadn't been interested in testing the limits of his mental abilities. He'd rather ignore them, and he had the Vroeyth to blame for that.

He led her through an alley to another deserted street, but down the road, under a streetlight, was the TARDIS, and next to it, two figures. The Doctor he recognized, and the woman—was that Donna? Why was the Doctor with Donna again?

“Is that Rose?” Jenny asked, distracting him. He looked down the road, and sure enough, it was Rose. She looked different from when he'd seen her last, which wasn't that surprising since she must have been older, but the soldier's stance was unsettling, as obvious as it was from here.

The Doctor started running toward her, and Hardy frowned. He'd seen something glint out of the corner of his eye and—bloody hell. He knew what that was. He was moving before he'd finished the thought, rushing across the street. He should have sent Jenny, he wasn't fit for this, but he wasn't thinking fast enough, and he couldn't even begin to explain the danger in time for her, since she, for all the soldier's training would have asked too many bloody questions.

He hit his father about the same time the creature spoke and a searing pain burned his side. He fell, giving way to agony again. His whole body was on fire even though it had barely hit him. He groaned, rolling onto his back.

He was going to die here. That would be perfect, wouldn't it? Dying out of his time, not knowing where he was, but he supposed he'd saved his father.

That was going to have to be enough.

* * *

“Doctor!” Rose called, but the Doctor couldn't reassure her. He'd hit the ground harder than anticipated, and all things considered, even a glancing blow from a Dalek ray could be fatal—or at least enough to start a regeneration.

He touched his side. Bit tender, possibly singed. That was what he got for being distracted, but after seeing Rose again, he hadn't been thinking. He should have been, but he shouldn't be seeing Rose here. She wasn't supposed to be here. She'd been lost forever, or so he'd believed.

Her being here was impossible.

Just as impossible as the man who'd saved him. The Doctor looked down at his rescuer, staring into a face not too different from his own. Bit older model, with a bit more hair on it than he usually had. Still, it couldn't be him. He would know if he was crossing his own timeline.

“Doctor?” Rose repeated, getting close to him, but he'd also heard another voice, one he knew that he should not be hearing. That was just as impossible as Rose.

“I'm fine,” the Doctor said. He reached into his pocket, needing to get his screwdriver. “Thanks to him, but who... what... I don't understand. I don't know what he is or how he got here, how he could possibly be here. He looks like me, but he doesn't feel like me, and if he was me, having touched me, we'd have had a lot more than one Dalek on our hands.”

“The Dalek's gone,” Rose told him as she got close. “Jack just shot it. We're safe, but where did he come from?”

“Should be asking you that,” the Doctor said, wondering how he'd missed the shot, though he'd been a bit busy at the time. He glanced back at the husk of the Dalek. Oh, yes, that had definitely been shot. Not much left of it now. “That or her.”

“Her?” Rose asked, turning back to where the other woman stood. Jenny seemed to be as he'd left her on Messaline—with one major difference, she was alive—but she shouldn't be here. And not with another version of him.

That wasn't him, though. He frowned. “I don't understand. Jenny, how are you here? You were dead. You are dead. How can—did I just—am I somehow dreaming? That Dalek must have actually hit me. I must be dead myself. This—”

“No, I—I did something. I came back. Regenerated, I think he called it, but he—he didn't know that he could do it,” Jenny said, and Donna stopped to stare at her, too. Jenny knelt next to the other man, worry all over her face. “Alec?”

“Alec?” Donna asked, leaning over him. “What you calling him that for? He looks—blimey, there's two of them, and I thought one was bad.”

“He's not me,” the Doctor said. “I don't understand this. Any of it. Jenny's alive, Rose is here, and he's... He looks like me.”

“I don't think we should complain,” Jack said, grinning. “I wouldn't say no to two of you, but then again, we're all going to say no to two of you since he got hit by that that thing. We should get him in the TARDIS.”

“Leave me alone,” the wounded man whispered. The Doctor frowned again, not sure how he was even close to conscious after that. A Dalek ray should have killed him, even if it was a glancing blow. “Don't... you dare, Harkness.”

“Whoa,” Jack said, hesitating just a bit. “That doesn't sound like the Doctor. Unless the TARDIS is messing with us and giving him a Scottish accent.”

“Oi, look at the lot of you,” Donna said. “He needs medical care, and you're all standing here chatting like there aren't planets in the sky and a man dying in front of you. I don't care if he looks like the Doctor or not, he needs one, so get him in the blooming TARDIS already.”

“Yes, Donna.”

* * *

“So... if he looks like the Doctor,” Jack began, frowning down at the man now lying on the floor of the TARDIS, “does that mean that he's going to regenerate?”

“What? What's regenerate mean?” Donna asked, frowning as she looked around at everyone in turn. Jack got the feeling she was the only one who didn't know about that. Rose did, she'd been with the Doctor when he did, and now this other woman said she had, but Jack didn't know about that. He also didn't know who she was, other than the name Jenny. “What are you talking about?”

“It's a way of cheating death,” Rose whispered, staring down at the wounded man like she was about to be sick all over the place. “That's what he said. And wait—you did it? Who are you? How could you regenerate?”

“I'm his daughter,” the blonde answered, and Jack stared at her. Not that he was complaining about that, either. He liked the idea of the Doctor reproducing. All those beautiful genes should be spread about and shared. Preferably with him, multiple times, but he wasn't choosy. And didn't the Doctor have a responsibility to reproduce any way he could since he was the last of his kind?

“Daughter,” Rose said, swallowing hard. She looked over at the Doctor. “You... have a daughter?”

“She's a generated anomaly from a machine. Progenation,” the Doctor said. “Reproduction from a single organism. Means one parent is biological mother and father. In this case, me. So, yes, she's my daughter. No, I didn't pick up a wife and have a child.”

“I thought—”

“I didn't say that to mean you weren't my daughter,” the Doctor told her. “I just... Rose wasn't there, she didn't know what happened, and I didn't want her thinking I had... well, that's complicated, and this isn't the time for it. We need to figure out what my doppelganger is doing here and what that means. After all, this shouldn't be possible. Oh, they've tried before to clone me, and there are planets with sufficient technology to create lookalikes, but most of them don't last, and why would they do that? Why send him here if they did? No, wait, Jenny—you know. You called him Alec. You... came with him? How? Why?”

“He's your son.”

The Doctor stared at her. Actually, they all did. “What?”

Jenny nodded. “He is. He's my brother. I don't understand—you knew him. All of you did. Well, not Donna, but we were just there, and you and Rose and Jack all knew him. You knew me, too. We'd met. I gave you ice cream.”

“Told... you...” the other man fought hard to say. “Timelines...”

The Doctor frowned. “What about the timelines?”

The other man didn't answer, and Jack wasn't sure he'd ever answer anything again. Jenny swallowed. “Um... He said... that the you who knew about him was in a different point of time from the one who had been to Messaline and created me, that he'd met a you that was past Messaline but didn't know I was alive. And... no one actually knew where he came from.”

“What?”

“Doctor,” Donna said. “Stop chatting and help him already.”

The Doctor sighed. “He was hit by a Dalek death ray, Donna. There's not much anyone can do. Mind you, it was probably on the lowest setting—lowest that kills, anyway—since they like to cause their victim the most painful death they can even if they're capable of vaporizing anything they hit, but that doesn't make it any less fatal."

“So, what, you just leave him to die?”

The Doctor winced. “Don't you think if there was anything I could do, I would have done it? He should have started the regeneration process by now if he were capable of it—that or a healing coma. He's done neither, and I'm afraid even if we could pop off planet for medical assistance from some advanced hospital, there's nothing they could do. He's dying, and I can't stop it. I just met my son, and he's going to die. Just like you, Jenny, and I can't do this again. Gah, I can't think.”

“Doctor,” Rose said, going to his side and taking his hand. He pulled her up against his chest and crushed her to him, closing his eyes as he held onto her, grief raw and plain for all to see even as he had to feel some relief at having her back again.

Jack frowned, thinking both of them might just know more than they were saying, but then the power in the TARDIS died, flicking off in an instant and making the Time Lords in the room groan like they'd felt it.

The Doctor let go of Rose and ran to the console. “They've got us. Some kind of chronon loop. Power's gone. Can't stop this.”

Jack felt the TARDIS start to move. “There's a massive Dalek ship at the center of the planets. They're calling it the Crucible. Guess that's our destination.”

Donna turned to the Doctor. “You said these planets were like an engine. But what for?”

“I don't know,” the Doctor admitted. “It could mean—Rose, when you were gone, what did you see? Was it just—”

“It's the darkness,” she answered, and what Jack heard in her voice then he never wanted to hear again. Her time away had etched something dark and horrible into her soul, just like the Year That Never Was had done to him.

“That world I was in on that market planet,” Donna began, “when I saw Rose again... when we met, the stars were going out.”

“One by one,” Rose agreed. “I looked up at the sky, and they were just dying. The dimensions started to collapse. Not just in this world, but the whole of reality. Even the void was dead. Something is destroying everything.”

Donna nodded, giving the man on the floor another glance. “In that parallel world, you said something about—”

“Don't,” Rose said, and the other woman frowned. “Not... now. Not... here.”

“Rose?” the Doctor asked, troubled. “What is it? What aren't you—”

The console beeped, and the Doctor looked to the doors, uneasy. “The Dalek Crucible. All aboard.”

“Doctor, you will step forth or die.”

The Doctor winced. “We'll have to go out. Because if we don't, they'll get in.”

Rose stared at him, starting to shake her head. “No. They'll kill you, and we need to stay here. We'll be fine, yeah? You told me nothing could get through those doors.”

“You've got extrapolator shielding,” Jack reminded him, thinking that should help, at least buy time to think of something they could do against the Daleks. They had the Doctor and the TARDIS and his daughter—he doubted the son could do much, dying as he was, but something had to be done about all this, and they needed time to plan, time they'd buy by staying inside.

“Last time we fought the Daleks, they were scavengers and hybrids, and mad. But this is a fully-fledged Dalek Empire, at the height of its power. Experts at fighting Tardises, they can do anything,” the Doctor said, his voice betraying the horrible truth of his words, the things he learned in that terrible war only he could remember. “Right now, that wooden door is just wood.”

“Damn it,” Jack said, checking his wristband. “My teleport went down with the power loss.”

“That looks like the one that Alec has,” Jenny said. “Oh, that must be it. It's not the power, it's the paradox, right?”

“Um...”

The Doctor shook his head. “Never mind that now. We had better go. All of us together. They'll know that there are still people in here and kill us if we don't, so _allons-y.”_

Jack went first, just in case the Daleks were firing without warning, but he survived his step outside. Rose came after him, trailed by Jenny, and the Doctor leaned back into the TARDIS at the last second. 

“Donna? Come on. You have to leave him. I told you. There's nothing else we can do.”

* * *

Donna shook her head. She didn't understand the Doctor sometimes—most times—and this was one of them when she just couldn't do what he said. Yeah, sure, she knew that he was right a lot, more often than she wanted to admit, but she wasn't about to ignore a man on his deathbed, either. This was the Doctor's son, and while Rose had told her not to say anything in front of the others, more of her memories had come back from that parallel world, and she knew she'd heard Rose say something about the Doctor's son.

Or maybe it was just the Doctor's child, which Donna knew could mean the girl outside with him. Still, no one deserved to die alone, and how the Doctor could just walk away from his son now—Donna would never understand that part of him. The alien part.

She'd traveled with him enough to know that she wouldn't ever understand it, but he'd seemed better, even in spite of Rose's loss, in the last little bit. Of course, Donna had known that would change, soon as she told him she wanted to go back to see Lee. She'd done it as casually as she could, telling the Doctor she wanted to go shopping, and maybe she could find something for Lee to make adjusting easier, and he'd taken her to that bloody market where she'd ended up in some parallel world somehow, one where Rose was there, sort of, but everything else had gone so bloody wrong Donna was terrified by it, even though at the time she hadn't known she met the Doctor or Rose or anything like that.

She should still be a temp in Chiswick, but no, she'd gone on to be a founding member of Vitex, and that thing had taken off overnight, instant sensation, and soon the business was as big as it had been on another world. She'd settled into that life and thought it was enough to keep her from thinking about Lance.

And it was, except sometimes she wanted more than a business, which she knew was true of everyone at Vitex. Rose left first, taking back up her life with the Doctor, and soon Pete and Mickey were turning Vitex resources into something they called Torchwood, even with Jackie having a new baby on the way and Mickey falling hard for that Martha the Doctor found not long after he met Donna and they started Vitex.

She found herself going on one trip with the Doctor, just one, and then Pompeii turned into her joining him and Rose for helping atone for failing to help the Ood before, and she'd almost thought she wouldn't go again, but she'd had just about enough of the stress of trying to deal with the new board of Vitex directors that she'd demanded a beach and gotten a library instead.

She moved closer to the Doctor's son, kneeling down next to him. She'd be along in a minute, just as soon as she confirmed what he'd said. If the man was actually dead, then she'd accept it and move on to the rest of her fate.

She was at his side when the TARDIS doors snapped shut. Frowning, she ran to them, banging on them in a futile attempt to open them up.

“Oi, I'm not staying behind,” she said, shaking the door handles. “Come on, he didn't have to die alone. Don't go—let me out. I'll come. I swear I will. Just let me out.”

The doors didn't open, but she could still hear that creepy voice from outside. “The TARDIS is a weapon, and it will be destroyed.”

Donna shook the doors again. “No. No, this is not happening. It can't.”

The doors didn't budge, and she swore, loudly, but then she remembered what Jenny had said about the thing on Jack's wrist, the teleport. He'd said it had stopped working, but if she was right about it stopping because there were two of them, then maybe one would work now since the TARDIS was a different dimension or something like that.

She went back to the man's side, starting to search his pockets. “Sorry, mate, but you're sort of the reason I'm in this mess, so you'll just have to put up with me looking for my one way out. Unless, of course, you're not going to die and you can fly this thing.”

He didn't so much as grunt, and she sighed. “Yeah, I thought as much.”


	41. Time for the Crucible

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Daleks have a reality bomb, and they've tried to destroy the TARDIS. This was all prophesied, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I'm glad I stopped the last chapter when I did, considering how long this one got. Eep.
> 
> It was kind of... difficult, and there is a part of me that wishes I hadn't done this, but I needed to finish what I'd started.

* * *

_“So this is how it ends, then.”_

_“Apparently.”_

_“This is really it, all there is, and it's just done? How can it possibly end like this? Now, here, with everything so wrong?”_

_“That's time for you. Everything becomes such a mess.”_

* * *

“Daleks reign supreme. All hail the Daleks! Daleks reign supreme. All hail the Daleks!”

The Doctor looked at the Daleks chanting around him, trying not to react too much. He couldn't afford that, not when he knew how that would end. Others would be punished for his attempt at scorn, and while he didn't think they were anything close to supreme, they'd already scored a major victory here, one that weighed heavily on his hearts.

“Behold, Doctor,” the red Dalek said, sounding almost smug despite the limitations of his communications device. “Behold the might of the true Dalek race.”

The Doctor ignored him. “Donna, come on. You can't stay in there.”

The TARDIS door slammed shut, trapping Donna inside. He stared at them, not understanding. He hadn't done that. For all River had made such a bloody big deal about him snapping his fingers to close it, he'd never done that, not really, and he wouldn't. He knew the TARDIS wasn't safe, but he also wanted to give his son the only thing he could—a peaceful death. He'd be left alone in there, and that was all that the Doctor could do for him.

“What?” The Doctor was aware of eyes on him, Dalek and otherwise. “It wasn't me. I didn't do anything. Donna, come out of there.”

He could hear her pounding on the doors, but they didn't open. Desperate, he turned to the red Dalek. “What did you do?”

“This is not of Dalek origin.”

“Stop it,” the Doctor said, shaking his head, not sure how he could fight against this. Even pulling out his screwdriver could be the wrong choice, getting everyone killed, and he didn't want that, couldn't let that happen, even if it seemed inevitable now. “She's my friend. Now open the door and let her out.”

“This is Time Lord treachery.”

“Me?” the Doctor demanded, frowning. “The door just closed on its own. And if you're talking about the man in there—the Daleks _shot_ him. He's dying. Or already dead. The treachery here is yours.”

“Nevertheless, the TARDIS is a weapon and it will be destroyed.”

A trapdoor opened under the TARDIS, and the Doctor could only stare helplessly as it dropped down, out of sight. He swallowed, choking back grief and rage as he whirled to face the Daleks again.

“What are you doing? Bring it back. Now,” the Doctor ordered, but the Daleks ignored him. He felt desperation tugging at him again. The TARDIS. His ship. Donna. His friend. In spite of everything, he'd become very close to her, needed her more than he could admit after Rose—yes, he had Rose now, but that wasn't like this trade off was right or fair. 

His son had been in that ship, too, and while he hadn't had much time to know him, his son had known _him_ which meant that he _did_ have memories of that man, and for his son to risk his own life for him—his son cared enough to save his life. That meant that they'd been at least a little close once. The Doctor _wanted_ to remember that, needed to, but he couldn't even mourn properly in this state.

“What have you done? Where's it going?”

“The crucible has a heart of z-neutrino energy,” the Dalek told him, once more smug. “The TARDIS will be deposited into the core.”

“You can't,” the Doctor protested. “You've taken the defenses down. It'll be torn apart.”

“Donna's still in there,” Rose said, horrified. He'd forgotten how close the two of them had gotten while they worked to build up Pete's company.

“Let her go,” Jack ordered, his air of command a farce here, even as the Doctor wished that they would listen to him.

“The female and the TARDIS will perish together. Observe,” the red Dalek told them, and an image of the TARDIS appeared on the screen, bobbing in the molten core. “The last child of Gallifrey is powerless.”

“Please,” the Doctor said, letting his full desperation out in his words. He was helpless, unable to get to his ship or his friend, to save any of them from this mess. “I'm begging you. I'll do anything. Put me in her place. You can do anything to me. I don't care. Just get her out of there.”

“You are connected to the TARDIS. Now feel it die.”

“Total TARDIS destruction in ten rels,” another Dalek said, counting down. “Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.”

The TARDIS disappeared from the screen. Just like that, gone.

“The TARDIS has been destroyed,” the red Dalek said, reporting its triumph. “Now tell me, Doctor. What do you feel? Anger? Sorrow? Despair?”

“Yeah.”

“Then if emotions are so important, surely we have enhanced you?”

“That was a very, _very_ stupid thing to do,” the Doctor said, his voice cold. “Not only did you take away my friend, my very best mate, and my ship, too, but you just killed my son. There is nowhere in this universe where you would get an ounce of mercy from me, not now.”

“You are powerless. You can do nothing.”

* * *

“There has to be some way of making this thing work,” Donna said, tempted to smack the wristband on the floor in frustration. She didn't know how the Doctor would have done it, but he'd have found a way. She knew that, but she wasn't a Time Lord. She was only human, and she'd found all that technobabble they did at the Torchwood meetings so boring she never remembered it. “Damn it, why can't I remember any of the things he said when he was teaching me to drive this thing?”

“Why can't you say a bloody word without shouting?”

Donna dropped the wristband and stared in shock. “I—you were dead. You're dead. You're just... dead. That's how it works.”

“No, just wishing I was, again,” the man muttered, Scottish accent so thick she could barely understand him. “Get me up. We don't have much time. And you—stop screaming in my head. Can't think as it is.”

“I'm not screaming in your head.”

“Talking to the TARDIS,” he said, and she stared at him. He lurched to the side, dragging himself toward the console. She pinched herself, checking she was awake, and then she went to his side, putting an arm under him. “No panicking. Normally I like that, but not now.”

“Oi, I am not panicking.”

“Again, not talking to you,” he muttered, falling onto the console. He forced himself up with a grunt and pushed a series of buttons, turning a knob and shoving the lever down. The TARDIS lurched, but Donna thought maybe they were in the vortex again, which was a relief.

For all of two seconds.

He fell then, back onto the floor with a thud that had her wincing, and when she tried to rouse him, she couldn't. She leaned in, and yeah, he was still breathing, two hearts beating loudly in his chest, but he didn't stir when she shook him.

“Bloody hell,” Donna muttered. “Now what?”

He didn't answer, and if the ship talked to him, it sure wasn't doing the same for her. She sighed. She knew he'd done some of the same things the Doctor had shown her, but she still wasn't sure how he'd managed to get them out of where they were, especially with the power off.

She looked up at the ship. “Don't suppose you'd give me a bit of a hint?”

She didn't expect an answer, so she did the only thing she could think of, putting both of her hands on his face, intent on shaking him awake. Images flooded her head with the contact, a giant jumble of them, most of them with the voice of some robot droning on and on about the sort of thing the Doctor said all the time.

She pulled away, shaking. “What the hell was that?”

“Whatever was... deserve it... waking me up again.”

She needed him awake. He could drive the ship and talk to it, and the whole world was about to die, including her family, and he was going to be the one to get them back to the Doctor. Still, she kept seeing that robot dog. She was going mental. “What did you do?”

“Touch telepath... can't maintain shields... in this much pain.”

“I've got images from your head in my head now?” Donna asked. “What do you think you're doing, violating my mind like that, alien boy?”

 _“You_ touched _me,”_ he snapped, turning over onto his uninjured side. “I was bloody unconscious. Now get me up again.”

“Oi, don't go ordering me about.”

“I am not dying out here. If that's what you want, feel free. If not, shut it, and get me to the damned console.”

“And I thought the Doctor was rude.”

* * *

“Activate the holding cells,” Davros said, and Rose found herself trapped in a spotlight, unable to move. She felt helpless, and she'd never been so helpless before in her life, not even when the Doctor had sent her back to Earth to face the Daleks on his own or when she'd forgotten everything she learned from him after his regeneration. She'd vowed never to be that way again, and mostly she'd kept her word, but then she'd lost everything. She'd finally made it back to the Doctor only to get trapped again.

“Excellent,” Davros said. “Even when powerless, a Time Lord is best contained.”

The Doctor managed to look scornful despite everything, so brave and seemingly strong, but would he be if he knew what she did? Or was it enough that she was here and Jenny, too? Could a daughter distract him from his other losses? She'd come back from the dead, after all, and that had to mean something. “Still scared of me, then?”

“It is time we talked, Doctor. After so very long.”

“No, no, no, no, no,” the Doctor disagreed, back in control despite the containment cell. “We're not doing the nostalgia tour. I want to know what's happening right here, right now, because the Supreme Dalek said Vault, yeah? As in dungeon, cellar, prison. You're not in charge of the Daleks, are you? They've got you locked away down here in the basement like, what, a servant? Slave? Court jester?”

“We have an arrangement,” Davro said, and Rose found herself wanting to laugh at the same time as the Doctor, who'd just figured it out.

“No, no, no, no, no,” the Doctor corrected. “No, I've got the word. You're the Dalek's _pet.”_

“So very full of fire, is he not?” Davros asked, turning to Rose. “And to think you found your way back from the dead to be with him again. Tell me, do you think that having cheated it once you can do it again.”

“Leave her alone,” the Doctor bristled, though he frowned, looking at Jenny. Those words could have been for her. At least none of the Daleks seemed to understand what Jack was. That was some small comfort, wasn't it? He could get free, though what he'd do when he was, she couldn't say.

“She is mine to do as I please.”

“Then why am I still alive?” Rose asked, folding her arms over her chest. “Why not kill me like you did Donna and Alec and Jack?”

“You must be here. It was foretold,” Davros said. “Even the Supreme Dalek would not dare to contradict the prophecies of Dalek Caan.”

She looked over at the other spotlight, the half-fried Dalek shell and the thing squirming inside it. “So cold and dark. Fire is coming. The endless flames.” 

“What is that thing?” Rose asked. She knew it was a Dalek, a true one, like the one she'd seen in Utah, but that one didn't look right even for those monsters.

“You've met before. The last of the Cult of Skaro,” the Doctor told her, and she turned back to frown at him, not understanding. “It flew into the Time War, unprotected.”

“Caan did more than that,” Davros said, and it sounded to her like he was bragging. “He saw time. Its infinite complexity and majesty, raging through his mind.”

Rose tensed. That was familiar. She knew that. Bad Wolf. She'd seen all of time and space back then, and it would have driven her just as mad as that creature over there if she'd remembered it, but the Doctor had taken the vortex from her, saved her. 

“And he saw you. Both of you.”

“This I have foreseen, in the wild and the wind. The Doctor will be here as witness, at the end of everything. The Doctor and his precious Children of Time,” Caan said. “And one of them will die.”

“Was it you, Caan?” the Doctor demanded. “Did you kill Donna? Why did the TARDIS doors close? Tell me. Now.”

“Oh, that's it,” Davros mocked. “The anger, the fire, the rage of a Time Lord who butchered millions. There he is. Why so shy? Show your companion. Show her your true self. Dalek Caan has promised me that, too.”

“I have seen,” Dalek Caan said. “At the time of ending, the Doctor's soul will be revealed.”

The Doctor frowned. “What does that mean?”

Rose wanted to reach out and reassure him. She knew what her Doctor feared most of all, and it wasn't even the Daleks. It was himself, the darkness he knew he was capable of, and she knew that having given into it in the War he never wanted to do it again. That was why he had companions, why he needed them, and she was so glad Donna had been with him to keep him from the worst, but now, here, he thought he was alone even with Rose standing near him.

Davros smiled. “We will discover it together. Our final journey. Because the ending approaches. The testing begins.”

“Testing of what?”

“The reality bomb.”

This was what she'd seen, what she'd feared even when she wasn't coherent enough to fear anything. This was what the parallel world had shown Donna. This was the end of everything. If this worked, the universe was doomed. She'd tried to prevent it, her and the TARDIS through Bad Wolf, but it wasn't enough. No matter how many times she'd changed the timelines, she'd still lost.

“No.”

“Electrical energy, Miss Tyler. Every atom in existence is bound by an electrical field. The Reality bomb cancels it out. Structure falls apart. That test was focused on the prisoners alone. Full transmission will dissolve every form of matter.”

Rose looked at the Doctor. “The stars... going out.”

“The twenty seven planets,” the Doctor said, horror in his voice. “They become one vast transmitter, blasting that wavelength.”

“Across the entire universe. Never stopping, never faltering, never fading. People and planets and stars will become dust, and the dust will become atoms, and the atoms will become nothing. And the wavelength will continue, breaking through the rift at the heart of the Medusa Cascade into every dimension, every parallel, every single corner of creation. This is my ultimate victory, Doctor!” Davros said, triumphant, gloating, and making Rose wish she could divide every atom of his body out of existence as she'd done the Dalek Emperor. “The destruction of reality itself.”

* * *

“He said only regeneration or a healing coma could save you.”

Hardy gritted his teeth, reaching for a tool on the table. “Yeah, and I don't doubt he's right. Doesn't matter. Don't think I can do the one, don't have time for the other.”

The woman stared at him. He ignored her. He couldn't afford to get distracted, not when he wasn't even sure he could do what needed to be done. He had put his mother's stories of the Daleks and her encounter with Davros together with what he'd seen and other things K-9 had told him, but that didn't mean he trusted his instincts on how to build the device he thought they needed, not in his current state.

“You were there,” Donna said, and against his will, Hardy stopped to look at her. “At the Library. You're the one who found Lee and brought him to us, but I don't remember you. I can see it, now, 'cause I've got all this stuff in my head from you, but I don't remember it.”

“The Doctor had to forget to preserve the timelines. So you had to forget, too,” Hardy said, closing his eyes and hissing out a breath as he leaned over the console.

“I wouldn't do that.”

Hardy didn't look at her. “I'm not getting into that now. I don't have the bloody time for you to get all bothered about it. You don't know you didn't agree, so just shut it. Now. Or I'll find some room to shut _you_ in.”

“Are you always this charming, or is it because you got shot?”

“From what I understand of Dalek technology, I should be dead,” Hardy snapped. “Do you really have to do this now?”

“Well, forgive me for thinking that if I knew what to give you, I could get you something for the pain or whatever else you might need,” she huffed. “I know aspirin's bad, himself told me that once, but I don't what is good.”

Hardy bit back a good deal of what he might have said. “That... thing over there, the one... looks like a hypospray. Pass it over.”

“A what?”

“Bloody hell. You've never seen Star Trek?” 

“No.”

He glared at her before pointing at the tool the Doctor had left on the console. He assumed that with as bad as his father seemed to be at repairs the local anesthetic was used often enough to be left where it was instead of inside the TARDIS' medical bay. “That. Hand it to me, and shut up.”

“Oh, if only there was something in this that would make you act like a human.”

“I am human,” Hardy grumbled, and she stared at him. “Half. The Doctor's still my father. Just give me that already.”

She did, jabbing it into his side, mercifully not the injured one. “There. Now what are you making?”

“A z-neutrino biological inversion catalyser,” Hardy said, aware she was gaping at him again. Also, whatever she'd just stuck him with did seem to work fast. Either that, or he was going to lose consciousness again soon. “Davros told my mother that he built those Daleks out of himself. His genetic code runs through the entire race. If I can use this to lock the crucible's transmission onto Davros himself—”

“It destroys the Daleks?”

“In theory.”

“All right. What else does this theory need?”

“A bloody miracle?”

She folded her arms over her chest. “That how it's gonna be? You're just going to—oi, did you or did you not build a supercomputer at twelve? There's this dohickey here that looks a lot like what you did back then, so you do know what you're doing. I think. You can build it. I just don't know that you'll get a chance to use it.”

“I won't,” he agreed, and she was back to staring at him. “Donna, no one's meant to survive a Dalek death ray. Even full Time Lords can't. If they're lucky, they regenerate, and I don't think I can do this. What I will do is get you is get you back to the crucible, and you will have to do the rest.”

“Me?” she squeaked, and he winced. “I'm just a temp from Chiswick—”

“Liar. I know you're a part of a multimillion dollar company now.”

“Right, fine, but you're still putting saving the universe in my hands. What if I muck it up?”

He gave her a long, hard look. “Do you honestly think it's any better in my hands?”

“Point taken,” she said. “Tell me what to do, then, and give me a refresher course on driving this thing, just in case. We can do this. You and me. The Doctor and Donna.”

“I'm not the Doctor.”

“You look like him enough I bet you'd fool the Ood for a bit,” she said. “Come on. Let's do it. Save the universe.”

The TARDIS made her presence known in the back of his head, and he gave the console a pat. He was well aware they wouldn't do any of that without her help. “Take that lever there off. The brake. We'll want to make a very quiet landing.”

“Anything else?”

“Aye,” he said. “Think I'm about to pass out again.”

* * *

“This is Martha Jones, representing the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, on behalf of the human race,” a familiar voice said, and a moment later, an image appeared on the screen. “This message is for the Dalek crucible. Repeat. Can you hear me?”

The Doctor could. He was both relieved and worried to see Martha there. He turned to Davros. “Put me through.”

“It begins,” Davros said. “As Dalek Caan foretold.”

“The Children of Time will gather, and one of them will die.”

“Stop saying that,” the Doctor snapped. Two people had already died, and Caan was responsible for that, for destroying the TARDIS. If the Doctor got out of here, Caan would pay. “Put me through.”

“Doctor,” Martha said. “I'm sorry, I had to.”

“Oh, but the Doctor is powerless,” Davros said, smiling smugly at Martha on the screen. “My prisoner. State your intent.”

“I've got the Osterhagen Key. Leave this planet and its people alone,” she said, holding it up for them to see. “Or I'll use it.”

“Osterhagen what?” the Doctor asked, confused. He didn't know about anything like that, and he didn't understand. What would that mean? Why would the Daleks agree to anything? Or was this a very clever but desperate bluff? “What's an Osterhagen Key?”

“There's a chain of twenty five nuclear warheads placed in strategic points beneath the Earth's crust,” Martha explained. “If I use the key, they detonate and the Earth gets ripped apart.”

“What?” the Doctor couldn't believe he was hearing this. “Who invented that? Well, someone called Osterhagen, I suppose. Martha, are you insane?”

“The Osterhagen Key is to be used if the suffering of the human race is so great, so without hope, that this becomes the final option.”

“That's never an option.”

“Don't argue with me, Doctor,” Martha said, and he glared helplessly at the screen. “Because it's more than that. Now, I reckon the Daleks need these twenty-seven planets for something, but what if it becomes twenty-six? What happens then? Daleks? Would you risk it?”

“She's good,” Rose said with a grim smile.

“Rose?” Martha asked, frowning. “I don't understand. You're alive? How—”

“Second transmission, internal,” a Dalek reported, and suddenly there was another voice on another part of the screen.

“Captain Jack Harkness, calling all Dalek boys and girls,” Jack said. “Are you receiving me? Don't send in your goons, or I'll set this thing off.”

“He's alive,” Rose said with a pleased smile. “Oh, my god. That, that's my mum. What's she doing here? And Mickey? Is Pete around, too?”

“Don't see him,” the Doctor said, hoping he was at home with his child and Tony Tyler was far from here. “Captain, what are you doing?”

“I've got a warp star wired into the mainframe,” Jack answered. “I break this shell, the entire crucible goes up.”

“You can't,” the Doctor said, frowning. This couldn't be happening. What were they doing? Well, desperate measures, of course, but not good ones. Not at all. “Where did you get a warp star?”

“From me,” Sarah Jane answered. She shook her head, despair on her face. “We had no choice. We saw what happened to the prisoners.”

“Impossible. That face,” Davros said. “After all these years...”

“Davros. It's been quite a while,” she said, sounding almost smug herself, despite the fear the Doctor knew she still felt of him. “Sarah Jane Smith. Remember?”

“Oh, this is meant to be,” Davros told her. “The circle of time is closing. You were there on Skaro at the very beginning of my creation.”

“And I've learned how to fight since then. You let the Doctor go, or this warp star, it gets opened.”

“I'll do it,” Jack agreed. “Don't imagine I wouldn't.”

“Now that's what I call a ransom,” Rose said, grinning. The Doctor couldn't share her enthusiasm for this, not at all. “Doctor?”

“And the prophecy unfolds,” Davros said.

“The Doctor's soul is revealed,” Caan said with a mad giggle. “See him. See the heart of him.”

“The man who abhors violence, never carrying a gun,” Davros went on, winding up for a devastating blow. “But this is the truth, Doctor. You take ordinary people and you fashion them into weapons. Behold your Children of Time, transformed into murderers. I made the Daleks, Doctor. You made this.” 

“They're trying to help,” the Doctor protested weakly. They'd been pushed too far, so they fought back. “Just help...”

“Already I have seen them sacrifice today, for their beloved Doctor,” Davros goaded. “The Earth woman who fell opening the subwave network.”

The Doctor frowned. “Who was that?”

“Harriet Jones,” Rose answered quietly. “She gave her life to get you here.”

“How many more?” Davros asked. “Just think. How many have died in your name?”

Too many, the Doctor thought, unable to deny it. He knew each and every one of them that had died in his name over the centuries, starting from when he ran from Gallifrey and never stopping, even the ones that had died at his hands could count in that number, two point four seven billion children on Gallifrey alone.

“The Doctor. The man who keeps running, never looking back because he dare not, out of shame. This is my final victory, Doctor,” Davros said. “I have shown you yourself.”

“Bollocks.”

“What?”

“I said,” the other man continued on in that same thick, Scottish accent. The Doctor could see the TARDIS behind him, doors open. “Bollocks. You didn't show him himself. You showed him what any creature will do when it's pushed far enough. Oh, aye, there are still plenty of cowards out there in the world, but I've seen plenty in my years as a detective, and if there's one thing I've learned, it's that anyone is capable of murder in the right circumstances. Miller says we have a moral compass, but that breaks. Or there's this. The end of the world where we'll all tested, and we fight back because it's our nature to do it. It's not anything to do with him. He didn't make us this. You did, you bloody bastard.”

Davros stared at him. “Impossible.”

“Oh, yes,” the Doctor said with a small smile. “He certainly is.”

* * *

“Engage defense zero five,” a Dalek ordered, and Donna saw the screens empty as everyone was teleported into the same room as the Doctor. He touched the force field around him, trying to get to them, but all he did was light it up.

“I've got you,” Jack said to the group he was with, wrapping his arms around them. They all looked terrified, and Donna felt horrible for what she was doing, hiding out of sight and not telling them she had a possible way to save them. This was Alec's plan, and she knew he was right about it, even half dead as he was. Using him as a distraction while she moved about—it was the only chance they had. “It's all right.”

“Don't move, any of you,” the Doctor told them, desperation in his voice. “Stay still.”

“Guard them,” Davros ordered. “On your knees, all of you. Surrender.”

“Do as he says,” the Doctor advised. He was pleading with them, and it broke her heart. “Just... do as he says. Please.”

“The final prophecy is in place. The Doctor and his children, all gathered as witnesses. Supreme Dalek, the time has come,” Davros said. “Now, detonate the reality bomb.”

Donna could hear the Daleks over the intercom, and it made her feel sick. She didn't know how the Daleks weren't seeing her, Alec hadn't explained it, probably since he wasn't sure it would work, and she didn't know how long that would last or if she could do what she had to do.

“Activate planetary alignment field,” the Dalek said, and everyone shuddered. “Universal reality detonation in two hundred rels.”

“You can't, Davros,” the Doctor said. “Just listen to me. Just stop.”

“Ah, ha, ha, ha,” Davros laughed. “Nothing can stop the detonation. Nothing and no one.”

“What, you thought just because you put us in these nice shiny bits of light that it was all over?” Alec asked. “Not sure what kind of field they are, but they don't render you entirely immobile, and while I didn't have the time or energy to do much, the TARDIS did manage to give me a copy of my coat that had the Doctor's sort of pockets.”

He held up the catalyser, and Donna grimaced, well aware that it was never going to work if he had the bloody thing.

And that's when she realized it was never about that device he'd made. He'd tricked her, too, into thinking that was what it was about. She heard the robot's voice in her head again, and she knew what she had to do.

“The weapon is useless in there,” Davros told him. “I was wrong about your warriors, Doctor. They are pathetic.” 

“That was a great plan,” the Doctor told his son. “Now we've got no way of stopping the reality bomb.”

“Detonation in twenty rels. Nineteen.”

“Stand witness, Time Lord. Stand witness, humans. Your strategies have failed, your weapons are useless, and. Oh. The end of the universe has come.”

“Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.”

“Mmm, closing all z-neutrino relay loops using an internalized synchronous back-feed reversal loop,” Donna whispered to herself, hoping that what she'd gotten from those memories was right. She'd sorted through the batch she got as fast as she could—super temp—but she couldn't be sure of all of it since she didn't think the Doctor's son was sure of it. “That button there.”

She pressed a button on the panel, and she heard the Daleks on the intercom again.

“System in shutdown.”

“Detonation negative.”

“Explain. Explain. Explain!”

“I don't understand,” the Doctor said. “Donna, you can't even change a plug.”

“Do you want to bet, Time Boy?” she asked, and his son grinned at her, though he looked even worse than he had before. She didn't think he was going to make it, and that was not something she cared to think about, not when she had his memories in her head.

“You'll suffer for this,” Davros said, about to zap her. She pulled a lever, and it sent his zap thingy back up his arm. “Argh.”

“Bio-electric dampening field with a retrograde field arc inversion,” she said, wishing she wasn't getting her information from what seemed to be a robotic dog.

“Exterminate her!”

“Exterminate. Exterminate. Exterminate.”

Desperate, Donna activated more controls on the panel, thinking her way through them with prompts from the robot and an angry Scot in her head.

“Weapons non-functional,” the Daleks reported, spinning around as they tried to fire and couldn't manage it.

“Macrotransmission of a k-filter wavelength blocking Dalek weaponry in a self-replicating energy blindfold matrix,” Donna said, smiling in triumph.

“How did you work that out?” the Doctor asked, frowning. “I don't understand.”

“Apparently the subconscious is a very dangerous weapon,” his son said, looking at Donna with a bit of a smile—half-grimace because he was still in pain. “River said I was the metacrisis. That Donna was the other part.”

“You can't be. That's impossible. A metacrisis would be unsustainable.”

“Exactly,” his son said, sagging down to a seat on the floor.

“Holding cells deactivated,” Donna reported as she finished the process. “And seal the vault. Well, don't just stand there, everyone. Get to work.”

“Stop them,” Davros ordered. “Get them away from the controls.”

“Trip switch—”

“Circuit-breaker in the psychokinetic threshold manipulator,” Donna finished for Alec, giving him a grin. “And spin. Now the other way. Ooh, this is fun.”

“Trip switch circuit-breaker in the psychokinetic threshold manipulator,” the Doctor repeated, rushing over to join her. “Why didn't I ever think of that?”

“Because you're just a Time Lord, you dumbo,” she teased. “You're missing that little bit of human. That gut instinct that comes hand in hand with planet Earth. I bet he can think of ideas you couldn't dream of in a million years. Ah, the universe has been waiting for this. Now, let's send that trip switch all over the ship. Did I ever tell you, best temp in Chiswick? Hundred words per minute.”

“Oh, Donna,” the Doctor told her. “You're brilliant.”

* * *

“Come on then, everyone,” Donna said, gesturing to the others. “We've got twenty seven planets to send home. Activate magnetron.”

“Stop this at once,” Davros ordered, but the Daleks couldn't obey him, and really, it was just a laugh, him saying that, especially after Jack rushed back from the TARDIS with two very large guns. He threw one to Mickey, who grinned and started toward the disabled Dalek leader. “You will desist.”

“Just stay where you are, Mister,” Mickey said, pointing his gun at Davros' head.

“Out of the way,” Jack said, pushing a spinning Dalek down the corridor. Rose and Jenny went to work on some of the others. Sarah Jane watched them, trying to manage a smile. They'd won, and that should be a relief, but she wasn't relieved.

She didn't understand. This shouldn't be possible, shouldn't be happening.

“Ready?” Donna asked the Doctor, and he smiled at her. “And reverse. Off you go, Clom.”

“Back home, Adipose Three,” the Doctor said. “Shallacatop, Pyrovillia and the Lost Moon of Poosh. Oh, blimey. We need more power.”

Sarah Jane went over to the other side of the room, kneeling down next to her son. “Alec.”

He looked up at her. “What... Oh, no. I know why you're here. Of course you'd be here.”

“Yes, but you... Alec, how, why are you here?” she asked, reaching over to touch his cheek. “I don't understand. You shouldn't know about any of this. You don't. And you... you're...”

“Wait. You know him? Sarah Jane, what is—”

“He's my son. He's supposed to be in Scotland, not here,” Sarah Jane said, shaking her head. “Alec... You were shot. You were in a coma. I don't...”

He swallowed. “2015. It's... was... 2015. When I left.”

She winced. So she'd have that, at least. Eight more years of her son alive, even if she was almost certain she was watching him die right here and now. “Oh, sweetheart. This shouldn't be happening. You weren't ever supposed to know, and I don't understand—”

“'S fine,” he said, putting his hand over his side. “Just... Tell Daisy... I love her.”

“You can't die here,” Sarah Jane said, shaking her head, refusing to accept that. She didn't care if somehow they'd saved the world, the universe, even. This time the cost was too high, and it should never have been her son. He wasn't supposed to know he was the Doctor's, wasn't supposed to know anything about this, and how could she lose him when she'd thought—well, he wasn't safe, he'd been hurt on the job, but that didn't mean she could accept this. “Alec, please. You can't. Not here.”

“Not yet. Not yet,” the insane Dalek said. “Not finished yet.”

“You promised me, Dalek Caan,” Davros said, turning to him. “Why did you not foresee this?”

The Doctor shook his head. “Oh, I think he did. Something's been manipulating the timelines for ages, getting Donna Noble to the right place at the right time—”

“This would always have happened,” Caan said. “Was meant to happen. I only helped, Doctor.”

“You betrayed the Daleks,” Davros hissed. “You betrayed us all.”

“I saw the Daleks, what we have done, throughout time and space,” Caan went on. “I saw the truth of us, Creator, and I decreed—no more.”

“Heads up,” Jack called as the door opened to reveal a red plated Dalek.

“Davros, you have betrayed us,” the Dalek said, pointing its weapon at him.

“It was Dalek Caan.”

“The vault will be purged,” the red Dalek said. “You will all be exterminated.”

It zapped the control panel. Nothing happened. Sarah Jane thought it might have frowned if it could have, but instead, it just stood there, waiting, apparently confused. Alec smiled, leaning his head against Sarah Jane's shoulder. Jack fired a pulse from his gun, and the red Dalek exploded.

“We've lost the magnetron,” the Doctor said. “And there's only one planet left, but we can use the TARDIS. Guess which one it is? Oh, that's too easy, isn't it?”

“Doctor,” Sarah Jane said, but he was doing his usual avoidance thing, and he rushed into the TARDIS like he hadn't heard her.

Donna came over to Alec. “I think I need you. There's so much to this I don't understand. Maybe if I had a Time Lord brain like yours—”

“Ask Jenny.”

“She just asked me what to do,” Donna said. “Please. I don't want this to fall apart while he's busy getting the TARDIS ready.”

“You have to act,” Caan said. “This is not how it ends. The prophecy must complete.”

“Don't listen to him,” Davros said. “He is wrong.”

“I have seen the end of everything Dalek,” the insane one insisted, “and the Doctor must make it happen.”

“It's not over, that much is true,” Alec said, grimacing. “Help me up, I need to look at... Need to think.”

“Alec,” Sarah Jane said, but he shook his head, and she knew that look well. She knew her son, and there was no point in arguing him. “All right, easy. Take it slow. Don't hurt yourself again.”

He grunted, leaning against Donna as he moved to the console. He leaned over it, looking at the readings, nodding to himself. “It'll hold. It's fine.” 

Sarah Jane touched his back as she leaned close to him. “Alec?”

“With or without a reality bomb, there are too many of them,” he whispered, and she nodded, knowing that another war would be coming. She didn't want to believe it, didn't want it to be true, but it was. The universe had survived, but it would still suffer, even after they managed to put the Earth back where it belonged.

“You have to do it, Doctor,” Caan insisted. “Fulfill the prophecy. Do as I have foreseen. The threefold man. The Doctor. He will do as I have seen.”

Alec looked over at the creature, a bitter smile on his face. “You're saying this is all down to prophecy. Foretold and known, something that none of us could run from if we wanted to.” 

“It is,” the creature continued gleefully. “You know what you have to do.”

“No, I don't have to do anything,” Alec said, facing down Caan. Even in his weakened state, he was so damned impressive to her. Sarah Jane's heart swelled with pride. “The thing about prophecies, though, is that you have to be a god to make them work. Not even access to the timelines is enough, and you... you are no god.”

“I have ensured fulfillment of the prophecy.”

“No, you haven't,” he said. “Because the one thing you didn't factor in—no, I take that back. Two things you didn't factor in. Free will. We do as we please, no matter what timelines say.”

“You have acted according to my will.”

“No, I haven't,” Alec told Caan, looking over at Rose. “You weren't the only one manipulating the timelines. And that other thing you didn't factor in... that was me.”

“You are the Doctor. I have seen what you will do.”

“You mean, maximizing the Dalekanium power feeds and blasting you out of existence? Oh, aye, I can do that. Just one flick of this switch, and it's done,” Alec agreed. “Thing is, even if I do it, your prophecy is still wrong.”

“Do it,” Caan said, still chuckling madly. “The Doctor ends the Daleks. That is how it ends.”

“No, it isn't,” Sarah Jane said. “Alec, don't. You don't want that on your conscience. The Doctor couldn't do it, back at their creation, he could have, but he didn't and—” 

“He destroyed his own people to stop these things, and they keep coming back,” Alec said. “And he lives with that, knowing that it didn't work.”

“That doesn't mean that you want to do this,” Sarah Jane insisted. “I know you don't. I know you carry each and every one of them with you, the ones you couldn't save, starting with Ailie and continuing to this day. And I know you haven't forgiven yourself for what you had to do that same night, so no. Don't do again. Don't go down that dark path.”

“This button here destroys all the Daleks?” the blonde with the ponytail asked. “Are you sure?”

“Jenny, no,” he said, moving his hand to stop her. “Listen to me. You said you found another path. You didn't have to kill. Don't do it now. You don't want to do it.”

She looked back at the TARDIS. “It'll save everyone. It'll save him. You know that.”

Sarah Jane shook her head. “No, it's not what he'd want. There has to be another way.”

She bit her lip, and her hand moved toward the button again, but Alec pushed it before she could. Sarah Jane stared at her son in disbelief, unwilling to believe what he'd just done. “I don't...”

“I'm already tainted. She doesn't have to be,” Alec said, pained. He faltered, grabbing hold of the console to keep himself upright. “And it has to end, all of it. Might as well end with me.”

“Oi,” Donna said, wagging a finger at him. “None of that now. You've made it this far. You're going to live. They die, and you live.”

“One will still die,” Caan cackled, and Sarah Jane wanted to shoot it herself. “The prophecy is fulfilled.”

Alec snorted. “No, it isn't. Because I'm... not the Doctor. I'm... his son. You... still lose.”

And then he collapsed.


	42. Time for Awkward Exits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the crucible leaves lots of questions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just needed to wrap things up a bit, which leaves the explanation yet to do.
> 
> And I am very sick at the moment, so I apologize for anything that's wrong in this bit. I think it's fine, it's just a transition, but it's hard to be sure.

* * *

_“This is not how I imagined it.”_

_“Nothing ever is.”_

_“No, sometimes the truth is,” he said. “It is just what you expect, even when you know it's not what you want.”_

_“Is that how you feel about this truth?”_

_“Honestly, I don't know.”_

* * *

“What did you do?” the Doctor demanded, leaning out of the TARDIS doors. He looked around at everyone in the room before settling on the group at the console. Sarah Jane was kneeling next to the man on the floor, same with Jenny and Donna, and somehow he knew despite the worried looks on their faces, that his son had done this. He could tell that the other man was still alive, if only just. “Do you have any idea what you've done?”

Sarah Jane met his eyes, giving him a curt, tearful nod. “Oh, he knew. He almost didn't, but he knew, and he did it anyway.”

The Doctor frowned, but he shook it off, urgency overcoming everything else. “Get in the TARDIS. Now. Everyone. All of you, inside. Run. In, in, in. Jack, Mickey, grab him. We're not leaving him behind, no matter what he's done. Come on.”

Sarah Jane and Donna moved away from Alec, but instead of letting one of the others do it, Jenny helped pick up her brother and carry him into the TARDIS. The Doctor turned back to face one of his oldest enemies.

“Davros? Come with me. I promise I can save you.”

“Never forget, Doctor, you did this,” Davros said, pointing an accusing finger at him. “I name you. Forever, you are the Destroyer of the Worlds.”

“You're an idiot,” Rose told him, “it was his son, not him, and they're not the same.”

Flames leapt up around Davros' chair, and his scream was cut off in a gurgle. Caan started to cackle again, but the Doctor pushed Rose inside the TARDIS and shut the door behind them. He ran to the console and started up the sequence, sending them into the vortex.

“And off we go.”

“But what about the Earth?” Sarah Jane asked, going over to Alec's side again. “He didn't do this to lose it now, and it's stuck in the wrong part of space.”

“I'm on it. Torchwood hub, this is the Doctor. Are you receiving me?”

“Loud and clear,” a familiar looking woman said, and the Doctor stared at her, struck by the resemblance to someone else, a sacrificial lamb like the ones that Davros had mentioned. “Is Jack there?”

“Can't get rid of him,” the Doctor told her. “Jack, what's her name?”

“Gwen Cooper.”

That got a frown from Sarah Jane as if she was trying to remember something, and the Doctor felt it, too. He could feel the memories that he'd tucked away, pulling at him, wanting him to unravel the thread he'd just found. And then came more, as Jenny caught sight of her.

“That's not Gwen Cooper. That's Claire. Everyone called her Claire. And she was a Flyboln.”

“What?”

The Doctor ignored that for now. No sense provoking a Flyboln under these circumstances, besides which, he would have thought that it would already have been provoked into its true form by the Daleks. “Tell me, Gwen Cooper, are you from an old Cardiff family?”

“Yes,” she answered, “all the way back to the eighteen hundreds.”

“Ah, thought so,” the Doctor said, giving them an explanation that would cover over what Jenny said, even if no one else here knew what a Flyboln “Spatial genetic multiplicity.”

“Oh, yeah,” Rose agreed, but he got the sense that it was more about the distraction he'd needed than actual belief. Still, she smiled at him and he smiled back at her.

“Yeah, it's a funny old world. Now, Torchwood—”

“Wait a minute,” Jack said, turning back to Sarah Jane. “His name is Alec, right? And he said he was a policeman. That true?”

Sarah Jane nodded. “He's a detective inspector, South Mercia. Why?”

“Alec Hardy from South Mercia?” Jack repeated, and Sarah Jane frowned at him. “Damn. I don't—That was the name, wasn't it, Owen? Martha, you remember, don't you? The man who came looking for Professor Copley just as he started to threaten you.”

“Oh, my god, yes,” Martha said, horrified. “We'd thought it was all over, and then he showed up and said he wasn't letting us get away with destroying what he'd worked for—only the detective asked for the professor. Copley shot him, just like that.”

“What?” the Doctor asked, looking between all of them. “What are you talking about?”

Jack nodded. “Seems we owe your son, since I'm pretty sure he would have killed Martha and the rest of my team. Sarah Jane, you said he was still in that coma?”

“We transferred him to the house in Scotland with private care not too long ago.”

The Doctor frowned, but he couldn't let them get distracted again. “Later. All of that is going to have to wait. We can sort out all of this after we've gotten Earth back where it belongs. Can't let all those people freeze or cause a paradox. Torchwood, I want you to open up that rift manipulator. Send all the power to me.”

“Doing it now,” the other woman said, and the Doctor smiled at her, recognizing her as well, from the day the Slitheen took over Downing Street.

“What's that for?” Donna asked.

“It's a tow rope,” the Doctor said. “Now then. Sarah—there is another son?”

She nodded. “After I met you again, I considered doing it again, adopting a child. Not long after that, a child who needed me practically fell into my lap in the middle of an alien invasion. It seemed fitting to take him in as well.”

That led to more questions the Doctor wanted to ask but couldn't. Not enough time. “What is your son's name? The other one.”

“Luke. He's called Luke. And the computer's called Mister Smith.”

“Computer?”

“Your son that time. Though—not the name. He hates it.”

“Calling Luke and Mister Smith,” the Doctor said, still struggling with the need to ask so, so many questions about all of this. “This is the Doctor. Come on, Luke. Shake a leg.”

“Is Mum there?” a boy asked, coming closer to the screen.

“Oh, she's fine and dandy,” the Doctor said, and Sarah Jane nodded, calling out to him.

“I'm here. I'm fine.”

“Can I ask why the Doctor looks like Uncle Alec now?”

Sarah Jane shook her head. “I'm afraid we really don't have time right now, sweetheart. Just listen to the Doctor and do what he says. Same with you, Mr. Smith.”

The Doctor smiled and addressed the computer. “Now, Mister Smith, I want you to harness the Rift power and loop it around the TARDIS. You got that?”

“I regret I will need remote access to TARDIS base code numerals,” the computer informed him.

“Oh, blimey,” the Doctor said, running a hand over his face, “that's going to take a while.”

“No, no, no. Let me,” Sarah Jane said. “K-9, out you come.”

The dog appeared next to the boy, and the Doctor almost clapped with joy, pleased to see an old friend again. K-9 was one of the best companions he'd ever had. “Oh, good dog. K-9, give Mister Smith the base code.”

“Affirmative, Master. TARDIS base code now being transferred. The process is simple.”

The Doctor turned to the rest of the room. “Now then, you lot. Sarah, hold that down. Mickey, you hold that. Because you know why this TARDIS always is always rattling about the place? Rose? That, there. It's designed to have six pilots, and I have to do it single handed. Martha, keep that level. But not any more. Jack, there you go. Steady that. Now we can fly this thing—no, Jackie. No, no. Not you. Don't touch anything. Just stand back—like it's meant to be flown. We've got the Torchwood rift looped around the TARDIS by Mister Smith, and we're going to fly planet Earth back home. Right then. Off we go.”

The TARDIS lurched a bit, pulling Earth out of the cascade.

“Blame it on not having six pilots, will ya?” Donna asked. “You know, he flew better than you half-dead and managed to land quiet enough to where the Daleks didn't notice us at first.”

“She probably did most of the work herself,” the Doctor grumbled. “Come on. Hold it. Everyone together. No easy thing towing a planet, but luckily for us, we had the best if not the only ship for the job. That's a girl. You like this, don't you?”

The TARDIS made a contented sort of hum just before they reached the moon, able to drop Earth off just where it should be.

“And that's it. We did it.”

The others started to cheer and hug each other, excitement giving way to a sort of mini-celebration right then and there. It was happening on the screen, too, cheers from their other helpers. The Doctor crossed over to Sarah Jane's side, putting a hand on her shoulder, and she covered it with her own but did not look away from her son.

“He's a good man, Doctor. In spite of what you think, he is a good man.”

* * *

“I suppose now that we're back on Earth, we don't get a ride back home, least not an easy one.”

“Oh, Jack does,” the Doctor said. “The TARDIS needs a bit of a respite, bit of refueling, so we'll be here for just a tick while she gets recharged. Takes a lot to move a planet, and she could use the rest. He can jot out and be right back at Torchwood. Anyone else is welcome to leave before then, seeing as how it will take a few hours to tank up.”

Jack frowned. “You really think we'd do that? Just ignore the whole thing like that? That none of us have questions? Out of nowhere, not only do you have a daughter, but you also have a son. One that looks almost exactly like you. Rose is back from the dead. Sarah Jane is your son's mother. A lot happened here that needs explained.”

The Doctor drew in a breath and let it out, turning back to the man on the floor. “Impossible. He's still alive. He shouldn't even exist at all, but he's here, and he's alive.”

“He doesn't look like it,” Jackie said. “Are you sure that he's breathing?”

“It's slowed down because he's in a healing coma, but for that to work, he should have gone into it hours ago, not just after the crucible,” the Doctor said, leaning down to frown at the other man. He took out his glasses and started scanning him with a device.”

“I think he tried,” Donna told him. He looked back at her, and she nodded. “He was out when the TARDIS fell off the crucible, remember? And then he came round long enough to get us out of there and went right back down. When he was still out, I tried to wake him, and that's when he gave me enough memories of him and that bloody dog that got me through what I had to do at the console. The device he built was just a distraction—for me and the Daleks—and then he passed out again just before we were meant to go back.”

“Dalek death rays are supposed to be one of the only things that can kill a Time Lord completely. No regeneration,” Jack said, and the Doctor nodded. “How did he survive?”

“Well, from where I stood, it looked like the ray went right between you. I thought it had actually missed both of you until he didn't get up,” Rose said. The Doctor looked at her, and she shook her head. “No, he did not light up.”

“She's right. No strange lights on either of you,” Donna said. “It missed you, must have just grazed him, that's all.”

“Daleks don't miss.”

“Which is why he went to push you out of the way,” Jenny said. “I didn't even know what he was doing until he moved.”

The Doctor looked back at her. “How did you get there? Why were you there at all? You were dead. I know you said you regenerated, but that shouldn't have been possible.”

“I know, but it did happen. This isn't a trick. I'm alive.”

“I thought regeneration changed every cell in your body. Shouldn't she look different enough to where you wouldn't recognize her?”

The Doctor shrugged. “It may be different with her, since she's born of a machine and not a Time Lord in the usual sense.”

“Does that mean he could have done the same?”

“If he did, he could be fighting regeneration sickness and not an actual wound, I suppose. It's not like I've had a chance to do a full scan to be sure. I still don't understand how he can actually be here, as my family died years ago. I know of Jenny, of course, because I was there when I was put into the machine that made her, but him? No. I don't know him. And you're sure that he somehow was there and got shot in this timeline?”

“It's not something I could forget,” Sarah Jane said, shuddering.

“Wait, if he's your son—then, what, Sarah Jane was pregnant when you left her behind?” Mickey asked, frowning. “Seriously, boss, that's just—”

“You weren't,” the Doctor said, turning back to her. “You weren't. I know you weren't. It was—how do you call my son your own?”

“You gave him to me. You found me in Aberdeen and asked me to raise him. You told me never to tell you that he existed, to tell no one he was your son. You were deliberately losing him in time so that your enemies would never know about him. He'd be safe and protected, because you were convinced if you tried to raise him or see him, you'd get him and everyone who knew about him killed,” Sarah Jane said. She brushed back the hair from her son's face. “So I did. I ended up marrying a man who loved me and not my son, and we fought for years, but Alec grew up—a prickly, precocious child, gifted but so hard to know—never knowing he was anything other than human. He chose to be a policeman, a career that both worried and pleased me, because in many ways, he is so like you. Last time I saw him, even before he was shot, he didn't know about you. I don't know how he found out, but he said he was from 2015.”

“Don't remember anything from 2015, but we did go to 2012,” the Doctor said. “Still, something is missing here. How did he get from 2015 to here to cross his own timeline—and yes, I'm aware he can't do much damage if his other self is in a coma—but how did he get there? And how did he meet you, Jenny? He shouldn't know about any of this, so what happened?”

She shook her head. “I don't know. All I know is that he was there when I woke up from being dead. He had a wristband like the one Jack has, and we ended up back where he'd been before. You were there, with Sarah Jane, Rose, and Jack.”

“And none of us remember this?”

“Apparently not. I think the only one with the kind of answers we want is him, and he's currently unconscious.”

* * *

“You're not waking him,” Sarah Jane insisted. “If this is what he needs to heal, then he's going to stay there until he heals.”

“Appreciate the sentiment, Mama Bear,” Jack told her, “but we may not have any choice. We need to know what he knows.”

“No, you don't,” Rose said. “Not all of us need to go prying into that, and yes, Mum, I'm talking about you. And while Martha and Mickey probably want to thank him for intervening with that Copley guy and possibly saving lives almost at the cost of his own, that's not necessary. The rest of us have questions because we don't remember, but we forgot for a reason, and that reason still exists.”

“We don't know what it is.”

“That doesn't make it any less important than it was before,” Rose insisted, aware of all the eyes on her. She knew they wouldn't understand. They hadn't been where she was. She knew that some things were best left unseen, unknown. “We should take him back to his time and let him finish healing there.”

“No.”

“Is this because of what he did to the Daleks?” Jenny asked, frowning. “That wasn't—he wouldn't have done it if I hadn't been about to do it. I was still thinking like a soldier. There were so many, and we couldn't hope to fight them, but one switch could stop them. I was going to push it, but he did it first, said he was already tainted, but I didn't have to be. It's my fault. Not his.”

“Oh, Jenny,” the Doctor said. “It's not—”

“I was going to learn so much from you,” she said. “And then from him, but he didn't get much more of a chance to teach me, either. I'm sorry I wasn't better. If I hadn't gone to do it, he wouldn't have taken that on himself. He's a good man. Just like you are.”

“I know.”

Jenny took a breath, looking around at them. “There was something else. Something that you had only barely started to explain before you said we needed a break. It was about the wristband. The one I said he had that was like Jack's. It is, but... it's also about Bad Wolf.”

“Bad Wolf?” the Doctor asked, frowning. “What does this that have to do with Bad Wolf?”

Rose took a deep breath. “Everything.”


	43. Time for a Few Details

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A few explanations are given, making things a bit more complicated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I actually am trying to explain stuff now. Probably an unwise decision as I have been very sick for the last two days, but that has given me time to work on this despite the ever present nausea.
> 
> I think that, should someone want to disagree with the final decision I made, they can skip the last line and possibly the next chapter to keep things however they want to picture them.

* * *

_“How do you feel?”_

_“Why do you keep asking me that? What's with the feelings and the sudden need to share them?”_

_“You don't have to get defensive. It's only a question.”_

_“It's never just a question.”_

* * *

“What do you mean, everything?” the Doctor asked, confused. “Rose, what is this? What—how—you don't—I don't even know how you're here, and now you're telling me that Bad Wolf, something we thought was done at the gamestation, that it's still... still here? Still affecting us?”

“It's me. It'll always be me,” Rose told him, and he continued to frown at her. “It told me how to get back to the gamestation, but it was so much more than that. It stretches back into the past and to the future. I didn't just scatter messages through time. I scattered a lot more than that.”

“I don't understand.”

Rose sighed. “I know you don't. I just... There's a lot to explain, but we should take him back to his time. We have to give him a chance to heal.”

“Rose—”

“Caan lied. Alec is not meant to die here. What Caan saw in the timelines was the metacrisis that Alec prevented. If he hadn't knocked you out of the way, you would have been hit by that Dalek. You'd have started regenerating and funneled the energy into your hand in order to stay as you are. Then when Donna was left alone in the TARDIS, she touched the hand and spawned another you—he was half-human, half-Time Lord. So was she.”

“No. That would have killed her.”

“Exactly,” Rose said, looking over at Donna, giving her an apologetic smile. “You were brilliant without having to have the Doctor's mind in yours, and I hope you never forget that, because you would have. You'd have lost everything if the metacrisis had happened.”

Donna stared at her. “I don't—Rose, that's... You're telling me he saved my life? I mean, I knew he saved my life in the TARDIS because I was panicking and couldn't remember how to fly it, but he really _really_ saved my life, didn't he?”

Rose swallowed, not wanting to explain the rest. Donna would have lived—in a few of those timelines—because the Doctor would have stolen her memories. It would still have been a death of sorts, and she would not have wanted it and likely not forgiven him for it.

“I'm still confused,” her mum said. “No one ever explained what Bad Wolf was to me, or the gamestation. Mickey said you saw the words as a message, and we helped you get back to him, but that didn't explain anything else. What are you doing knowing about timelines and what would have happened if this man hadn't been there?”

Rose knew her mother wouldn't understand this, or if she did, she'd try and find a way to keep her from ever leaving with the Doctor again. “It's complicated, Mum. And I don't have time to explain it all now. Doctor, I know there's no chance of reapers or a paradox with Alec being in Scotland right now, but it's still not going to help him heal if he stays here.”

“Valid point,” the Doctor said.

“Ah, but you also just said that the TARDIS needed to rest,” Mickey reminded him. “We were supposed to make our own way back to London or anywhere else we wanted to go.”

“Excellent point,” the Doctor said, “but I do take Rose's point as well. I should take care of my son.”

“How do you know he's your son? He looks like you and all, but that doesn't make him blood, because those Slitheen, they looked human but they weren't,” Jackie said, and Rose wanted to shake her mother, even if she knew part of this was her own fault for not wanting to tell her mother the truth about things.

“I know,” the Doctor said. “I believe what Sarah, Rose, and Jenny have said, and I also feel it up here. I can sense him, and I can even sense Jenny a bit.”

“He said that would get stronger, that it was in part because I didn't know those senses were there to use,” Jenny said. “His apparently weren't that strong at first, either, but now they're better.”

“He could have been subconsciously blocking his abilities, telling himself a human wouldn't have them and ignoring them,” the Doctor said. He shrugged. “Humans have been ignoring alien activity for years, after all. Even now, people will probably say none of this was real. Planets in the sky, the Earth having to be towed home... They'll still try to deny it.”

“None of us here are doing that. We'd all like some answers now.”

“And some of us... would rather... you all shut up,” Alec said with some excellent timing. “Is there no privacy here?”

* * *

“You really should be resting.”

“And you,” Alec said, swallowing and struggling to get the words out, “should not be risking a paradox.”

“I think we're a bit past that point,” the Doctor said, shaking his head. “We're on top of a mass of them by now, and I think the only way we'll sort them out is to get the truth. We need to get you back to your time, and that's now. I'm aware of the risk of two of us being in the same place, but we all need answers at this point, don't we?”

“Not me.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

“Only question left.”

“Which is?”

“Why am I still alive?”

The Doctor tried not to react too much to that. He knew that feeling well, having voiced it or thought it so many times since the Time War ended. He'd done it a few times before then, of course, but it was only after the Time War that he'd known without any doubt, that he did not deserve to live. Of course his son would feel the same after the choice he'd made, killing all those Daleks.

“You're still needed,” the Doctor said, aware of how unhelpful those words were, since he'd heard them and they made no difference to him. He'd helped other planets since the war, but he could make that thousands of them and still not feel like it was worth his survival.

“Suppose you'd have at least one person who agreed with you,” Alec said. “Help me up, would you? She'll be worried enough as it is.”

“Jenny does seem to be rather fond of you already,” the Doctor agreed, and Alec snorted. “What, you think she's not? She's searching for a sense of identity and purpose, and of course she'd latch onto family as a part of that.”

That got a bit of laughter, and the Doctor frowned, watching his son push up from the floor. He went over to the TARDIS doors, pushing them open. The Doctor rushed over to him, not wanting him to get himself hurt or anything of the sort, seeing as how they were on potentially dangerous ground now. He shouldn't be moving about and definitely not on his own.

The Doctor stepped out just in time to see Alec falter, almost knocked over by an apparent whirlwind.

“Dad,” she said. “Where have you been? I've been so worried. Gran was worried. Ellie was worried. Gramps was worried. Rose was worried. Even K-9 was worried.”

“You little liar,” Alec said, holding her close. “I missed you, darling.”

“Same here.”

“You... have a daughter?” the Doctor asked, and the girl looked around Alec to frown at him.

“Why doesn't Gramps know that?”

“Timelines, Daize,” Alec told her. “'S complicated. And I'm a bit tired. I'll let the others explain. You just come sit by me, yeah?”

“All right,” she said, walking over with him to a bench. He sat down, and she took a spot next to him, leaning on his shoulder. “You're sick again, aren't you?”

“Just tired. And you can stop gaping now.”

The Doctor swallowed, trying to find words. “I don't understand. You shouldn't exist, but you do, and you brought Jenny back to me, but... you also have a daughter. It's like... you rebuilt my family, all on your own.”

Alec snorted. “Don't think I did it for you. Jenny was an accident. And Daisy... well, can't say as I ever thought that I should be a parent, and this one deserves a lot better than me, but unfortunately for her, she's mine.”

“Oh, stop it,” she said, patting her father's chest. “Like I'd want a different father. Especially now. My father's half-alien, you know. And my grandfather travels in space and time. Gran has a robot dog, too, which is pretty awesome. Forget A-levels. I know what I'm doing with the rest of my life.”

“Bloody hell, not that again. You are not quitting school to fly off in the TARDIS.”

The Doctor watched this all with a smile on his face. He felt Rose walk up beside him, putting her hand in his. “You did this, didn't you? Bad Wolf, I mean.”

“My Doctor. Safe. Even from himself.”

* * *

“So, someone is going to explain all of this, right?” Ellie asked, looking around the group, taking in how there were two of almost everything and everyone. Two time ships, two Doctors, two Roses, two Jacks, two Sarah Janes. Ellie just considered herself lucky that there weren't two Hardys. She didn't know that she could face that.

“Supposedly that was the reason we came, but I'm still wondering if that's ever going to happen,” the ginger woman said. Someone had called her Donna, but Ellie had still been trying to wrap her head around the duplicates and almost missed it.

“Oh, please. Those two get along better than any other interactions of his present and past selves have,” Hardy muttered. “That never goes well.”

“Very true,” both of the Doctors said at the same time, and Ellie decided that was just creepy. One of them, the one she thought she'd been dealing with for the past bit, seeing as he was with the Rose she knew and not the other one, took over for both of them. “It takes a bit to get past the initial shock and disturbance to where meeting like this isn't so unsettling. We were enjoying it a bit, I think, as I seldom do, but this time I'm not fighting with myself over fashion choices or other poor decisions, and we're both agreed on what happens after this revelation, so we're in a surprising amount of agreement. And... well, we've got a few other reasons to be happy.”

The other Doctor's eyes went to Daisy, who was still happily snuggled against her father, while the one gave Jenny an encouraging smile.

“So, how do we get this conversation started?” Ellie prompted. She turned to face Jack. “None of that from you. I know you're enjoying this and not thinking a thing about truths as much as every deviant thing you can come up with, but we're not here for that, and I don't want to hear it.”

“Miller. Never knew you were such a prude.”

“Don't start,” she told Hardy, shaking her head. “I'm sure you don't want your daughter hearing what he's thinking.”

“No one would want that,” Hardy agreed, using his arm to pull Daisy closer. The teenager didn't protest, surprisingly enough. “See you're trying to keep us all in line, then.”

“Thankless job.”

“I'll say,” Donna agreed. “All right, out with it already. Sarah Jane explained part of it, how she got that one there for a son, but that's not half of it, so spill. Someone start talking. At least explain why there's two of everyone. That would be a start.”

“Timelines,” the Doctor said. “You're in the future from us, well, future from nearly everyone, but we happened to cross Alec's path first. So none of you remember because most of us will forget. Still, we wouldn't have been willing to forget if we didn't get the same answers you want now.”

“Right,” Ellie said. “That makes perfect sense.”

“So, Rose, care to fill in a few of the blanks?”

Rose—older Rose, that was—swallowed with discomfort. “It's complicated.”

“It always is. We need to get started before the paradox gets worse.”

Rose nodded.

* * *

“To make sense of this, you have to understand Bad Wolf,” Rose began, not looking at any of them. She didn't want to see their reactions, wasn't sure she could bear them. “And I didn't back when it happened, even still don't know all of it, after all that's happened. What I do know is that it starts with Bad Wolf. I thought it was just a message sent through time, reminders leading me to where the Doctor was on the gamestation. It showed me how to get back to him, but it was so much more than that.”

“Apparently,” Alec muttered, sarcasm dripping through his voice.

“You explained part of it before, but you didn't give much detail,” Ellie added. “Just that it was you, Rose, and that it had to do with the gamestation. You'd better explain that, all of it.”

Rose didn't want to, and half these people knew about it, but since the last explanation was crap, she had to give them more. “The Doctor sent me home to protect me. The Daleks were there, they were going to kill him and everyone else, and he sent me back. I saw the words Bad Wolf and knew I could get back to him, but I couldn't drive the TARDIS, so I did the only thing I thought I could. I opened the heart of the TARDIS. I looked into it. I absorbed the time vortex, and I flew back to rescue the Doctor. I destroyed the Daleks, dividing their atoms out of existence.”

“Um...”

“There's power in the time vortex,” the Doctor said. “So much power. The kind that would turn almost anyone mad. A Time Lord would be a vengeful god. Rose was... so human. She brought Jack back to life—now stuck in a loop where he can never die—and she saved me. Well, I did regenerate after pulling the vortex from her, but I lived. I'm still here.”

“It's also time,” Rose said, not wanting anyone to get caught up in the whole god part of this. She wasn't a god or goddess. She'd had some help seeing a lot more than she should have while connected to a being that cared deeply about the Doctor. Without that, none of this would have been possible. “I saw all of space and time. I saw what Caan did, the path that lead to the destruction of the Daleks. I saw what would happen, what the future held over and over again.”

“Rose—”

“And I knew that it wasn't enough to save the Doctor there in that moment because I'd lose him anyway,” she went on. This was difficult to explain, and she didn't know that words were enough. She'd seen so much more than she could hope to share with anyone else. “Not just to the regeneration, which isn't the same as losing him forever, but I'd lose him to the darkness inside him. I was willing to stay forever, but there were so many things that wanted to take me away from him. He said I healed him after the war, that he needed me. It wasn't just that, though. I knew he needed more than just a companion who could make him smile again. He needed to be a part of something, something far greater than me, but the timelines showed him losing Jenny—or believing he did. That wasn't enough. And the Master—if the Doctor truly believed that was the only other Time Lord out there—no, that couldn't be allowed to happen.”

“The Master?” the Doctor asked, frowning. “He died. He's gone. They're all—oh. He's not gone.”

“No,” the other Doctor said. “I found him, by accident, and we had a bad time of it. I don't want to go into details about what he did—”

“It was hell,” both of the Jacks said, and no one was going to doubt them. “Pure hell.”

“You didn't alter the timeline to stop him, though.”

Rose shook her head. “I couldn't. I didn't even understand all of what I saw when I was Bad Wolf and had those images in my head. It took a lot of time to sort through them, and it wasn't like I had forever to set things against what I saw. I had a few minutes to use the vortex to scatter the messages and prepare a countermeasure.”

“What?” Alec demanded. “Is that what you're going to call me? A countermeasure? Is that all I bloody am?”

“Of course not,” the Doctors said, their protests echoed by the Sarahs as well as Daisy and Jenny. “You are a lot more than just... that. You're...”

“Impossible?” Alec demanded, almost dislodging his daughter with his grumpiness. “Are you really going to use that one again?”

“Special. That works, doesn't it?”

“Bloody hell,” Alec muttered. “That's worse, I hope you know that.”

Rose shook her head. “When I said that, I didn't mean you, although you have been able to make the alterations to the timelines that I didn't have a chance to make. I knew that what the Doctor needed as much as someone to help him heal was someone who understood what he'd been through. And as soon as I saw Alec existed, I saw the fixed point in his timeline—”

“No,” he ground out, and Daisy looked at him in concern. “That wasn't... That can't be a fixed point.”

“I'm sorry. I know how much it hurt you, losing Ailie like that and—”

“Don't,” he insisted. “You don't know a bloody thing about it, so just stop it. What on Earth would make you think you had the right to make those kinds of decisions for me?”

“I know more than you think,” Rose said. “And while it might not be the best of reasons and you might not think I had the right after all... I'm your mother.”


	44. Time for Elaboration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bit of what happened leading up to Alec being left with Sarah Jane.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is also the part that if you for any reason didn't want to stick to my take on Hardy's parentage you'd skip. 
> 
> And it should have been easier to do as it was mostly expanding the sections at the beginnings of the chapters, but there was all this... fallout from being sick at work today, and I guess I'm sort of in trouble now, which made writing hard after a long day of working through sick to avoid having to get a doctor's note. Ugh.

* * *

_“Families are tricky things.”_

_“That has to be the worst understatement you've ever made.”_

_“Oh, like yours is perfect.”_

* * *

“What?”

“Oh, please. Like that possibility wasn't raised almost from the bloody beginning,” Hardy snapped. “I knew there was a chance it was Rose. Same as it could have been Martha, Donna, River, or someone else I didn't meet. Who the bloody hell cares?”

“I think a few of us do,” the younger Rose said. “I mean... I didn't know. And we haven't... So, yeah, that's a bit awkward.”

“In some ways, it would almost inspire some of us to... prevent such an outcome,” the Doctor said, holding up his hands as soon as he finished speaking. “I didn't say that I would—remember, I'm due to forget all this—but I wouldn't consciously wipe my son and granddaughter from existence. I can't promise I won't do it by accident, but Daisy is absolutely wonderful, and Alec... Well, I've become closer to him as my son in a few days than I fear I was with my other children before. And I know that I shouldn't say that in front of you, Jenny, must be like I'm playing favorites, but I haven't had a chance to know you yet at all.”

“She's special,” the older Doctor said. “I only barely got the chance to see it before she died, and then it was gone. Or so I thought.”

“Can I still travel with you?” Jenny asked. “Not that I don't want to get to know my brother or his daughter, but I was kind of looking forward to the running.”

“Of course.”

“So... back to the whole... he's your son thing,” Donna said. “It's not that I don't know about time travel and all, but... you died. You didn't have a son. You were dead.”

Rose winced. “That's... complicated.”

“Oh, God. Your future mother is dead?” Miller asked. “Just when I thought your life couldn't get any weirder, Hardy, it does.”

“A paradox on top of a paradox,” Jack said, looking at Hardy and then at Rose. “He was born during the Year that Never Was, wasn't he?”

She flinched, and Hardy could see the tears she had to fight just at the mention of it. Bloody hell. He didn't like where his mind took that one.

“What?”

“We're not discussing it,” Hardy said, giving a pointed look to everyone. The last thing he wanted was his daughter hearing that. Even he had no interest in knowing what the Master might have done to him. If Jack was right and he had been born during the time when the Master was in control of everything, then he would have been tortured, as the man feared, _while he was still a baby._

He didn't want to know about that. He didn't need anyone else knowing.

“The Master is part of why the Doctor wanted to lose the child in the past,” Rose said. “The Master hurt so many people, ones the Doctor cared about, and he knew if he had any family they'd be targets, just like his friends, but in some ways, they'd suffer more, especially if they were capable of regeneration.”

Miller looked at Hardy. “She's saying this Master, whoever the hell he is, he would have killed you over and over again until you couldn't regenerate anymore?”

“Yes,” Hardy answered, and Daisy tensed, grabbing hold of his arm. “Thanks for that, Miller.”

* * *

_The hybrid consumed his thoughts, pulling him in every sort of direction there was. He couldn't think except to worry and fret, to curse its existence even as he marveled at it. This was impossible, and yet it wasn't. Here was something that shouldn't exist, but it did, and with it came hope and possibilities and so many other strange things, feelings he had thought were long since gone._

_He did not know what he was going to do._

_He knew what he should do. That child should not exist. The solution was simple._

_He did not know that he could make himself do it._

_Rose was watching him, and that made it that much harder, leaving him unable to hide, to do what he knew she would consider unthinkable. She would never forgive him for it if he did it._

_He would never forgive himself._

_And yet he knew what had to be done. He had to spare the child what he knew was coming. He had already lived through that horror once, and he would not do it again. He couldn't. No parent would willingly watch their child suffer, and he already was._

_A hybrid like that wasn't meant to survive, and he knew that. He knew it couldn't last, but he also found himself wanting it to, wanted to keep it alive and safe. He could hold the child for hours—assuming Rose ever let him, she barely let it go as it was—but that wasn't enough._

_He couldn't give this child anything it needed. Safety, a home, nothing of the sort. He loved the TARDIS, and the TARDIS should have been enough, but he knew it wasn't. This life of his wasn't safe. It was necessary, and good most of the time, but not safe. Not fit for a child._

_“It's not fair,” Rose said, and the Doctor tensed, afraid she knew what he was thinking. “He goes to sleep so easily for you. Me he fusses and wails. Aren't babies supposed to want their mothers more? We get advantage cause we feed 'em, right?”_

_“He's not a normal child.”_

_“Don't say that. You'll give him some kind of complex.”_

_“Rose—”_

_“Look at him. It's like he understands what we're saying,” Rose said. “Suppose he does? Like the TARDIS is translating it for him into baby talk?”_

_The Doctor shook his head. “There'd be no need for translation. Time Lords have a gift for languages. And we're brilliant.”_

_“Full of yourself, ain't ya? You know he's half-mine.”_

_“I know.”_

_She stared at him. “What is it? What is that voice? What have you done? What are you going to do? Don't—”_

_“We can't keep him.”_

_“He's ours.”_

_“If he stays with us, he'll die.”_

_“No,” Rose said. She shook her head. “There has to be—what if I don't—we don't go in the TARDIS? If there's no alien planets involved, then he can't be hurt.”_

_“Someone tried to find me using your family before,” the Doctor reminded her, and she stared at him. He'd looked into those possibilities, too. Not only had he been unwilling to stay put in most of them, he'd lost both Rose and the child before he could get back to them._

_He couldn't escape it. Everywhere he looked, he saw his son's death._

_The Doctor nodded, looking at his son in quiet despair. “His timelines are so impossibly short. He won't make it. He dies because of me, over and over again... I can't do it. I can't...”_

_She wrapped an arm around him. “We'll find a way. We'll manage. We have to.”_

* * *

_Rose looked up from the baby, trying not to cry with the words she was about to say. The Doctor had kept his distance for days now, avoiding the baby as much as possible and always calling it “the hybrid” and refusing to agree on a name for their son._

_She didn't want to think about how much that hurt._

_“Would you still have done it if you knew?” Rose asked, almost certain he would never have allowed them to get to this point, to have done anything that could come close to resulting in a child, even if it was some kind of alien machine or ritual. He'd avoid anything like that and push her far away, wouldn't he?_

_“I wouldn't want this for him.”_

_Rose looked at him, knowing what that meant. “I was thinking.”_

_“I don't think it's wise to set down on a planet just yet. Not even Earth. Your mother will not forgive me for this, even if the circumstances were a bit unorthodox and we're technically married on a few planets and—”_

_“How do you know if a point is fixed or not?”_

_“What?”_

_“You say points in time are fixed, but how do you know? You come in and change our lives on a daily basis, so how do you know whether you're able to do it or not? You changed the past. I know you did. I was there.”_

_“So?”_

_“So what makes it fixed and not fixed? Can you... change one person's life as much as you want? As long as they're not part of the fixed event?”_

_“Oh, now that's a question...” the Doctor stopped, frowning at her. “No. That's not possible, Rose. We can't go altering his entire lifetime. I can see where his timelines stop, and not all of them are the same, but they all end. I can't change that. We will lose him.”_

_“What if you're wrong?” Rose asked. “You have to be. I mean, think about it. He's different. The only one of his kind. We're not even sure we could do that again, since you keep going on about how it shouldn't have happened. You're not the only one to say it's impossible, either.”_

_The Doctor flinched. “Don't.”_

_“He's got to be more than just a blip. He's not some flower that blooms for an hour and dies. He's more than that. He's... he'd change the universe, that's what he'd do.”_

_“Absolutely ridiculous. One person changing the entire universe.”_

_“Isn't that what you did?”_

_He tensed. She'd made a mistake, talking about what he'd done in the war, and that wasn't going to make him change his mind. “No.”_

_“It is what you would give anything to change, though,” she reminded him, trying to be gentle about it. “Doctor, please. You had to lose everyone else. Why shouldn't you be able to save the one you have left? There has to be a way.”_

_“I can't change his timeline. It's—I can't.”_

_Rose didn't believe that for a second. If their son died to an illness, they could find a cure. If he died to enemies, they could be avoided. Somewhere out there was a way that ended with the baby surviving. “You said one person could change history. One simple, ordinary person.”_

_“So?” the Doctor said as if he didn't understand what she was saying. She tried not to get too angry about that, even if she knew he was trying to pretend he didn't know what she was doing._

_“So maybe you need to change history for one simple, ordinary person,” Rose told him, even though she was sure their son was far from ordinary._

_He sighed. “You know I can't.”_

_“You remember back in Cardiff with Gwyneth and the Gelth?” Rose asked. The Doctor nodded. “And Cathica, on platform five. Even Queen Victoria. One person changed the universe.”_

_“You say that like you're disappointed.”_

_Rose was—in him. “History is full of them, too. History and the future, full of dozens of individuals. They're just people. One solitary, ordinary person. And they changed the universe.”_

_“And your point?”_

_“That one person's timeline is worth changing,” Rose insisted. “What if you were to say that Alexander the Great, that he was gonna die so young and that meant he didn't build that Greek empire? Hmm? Wouldn't it be worth changing if the timelines said he didn't do that? What is so wrong with giving this baby a real chance?”_

_The Doctor shook his head. “It's not that simple.”_

_She stared at him. “Then... there is a way?”_

* * *

_“Are you certain this is the best way?” Rose asked, stepping away from the TARDIS. The night air had a chill, and she shivered, cradling the bundle in her arms. Now the baby was quiet, though in time he would wake and alert everyone to its presence. He had a set of lungs on him, though she feared they might be as weakened as his hearts._

_Those same hearts that might be the reason he didn't last in any timeline the Doctor could see._

_“It is the only way,” the Doctor said, turning to look at her. His eyes held limitless pity, but it was no comfort, not now. Not here. Not with what they were about to do. “Losing the hybrid to time will protect it.”_

_Rose tried not to get angry about that. She knew the Doctor was trying to protect himself by not getting attached, but she hated the way he used the words all the same. “The hybrid” as if he wasn't a true child, not their son, their flesh and blood._

_“He is still a child. A defenseless infant.”_

_“And let them all believe that is all it is because that is the only way it will survive. If anyone were to know of its existence, it would be hunted. Exploited in ways we cannot begin to imagine,” the Doctor said, shaking his head. Neither of them wanted to think about that, but she knew it could still happen. She didn't want that. Not for her child. Not for_ any _child. “This has to be done.”_

_She fought hard for him to find a way to save their son, and yet now that they're here, she was fighting against it. She didn't know what to think of herself, but she was standing at some random point in Earth's history, about to give her child up to an orphanage and the life that would mean. She couldn't do that. She wanted him to have a full, long life, but how was this better than being with them?_

_Maybe they lost him next week. She'd hate herself for it, for walking out on an alien planet and bringing back something that made her child sick or something._

_She'd still rather do that than dump her baby in with strangers and tell herself it was for the best. She couldn't believe that. She would rather keep her baby forever—even if forever was only a few days. She hated herself for the thought, but how could this be better for her son?_

_“It's wrong,” she insisted, looking down at the baby in her arms. She didn't want to accept that her child's timeline was so short that one wrong trip in the TARDIS would be his last, but to abandon him completely? How was that better? “He'll be all alone. Who is going to protect him? Time won't do that. Time can't keep them from hurting him if they realize he's different.”_

_He stopped, frowning. “Nothing can draw attention to it.”_

_She knew that. She knew that was why she'd almost let him talk her into giving her son away. She'd almost left him. What kind of a mother was she? She couldn't argue that she was doing the right thing. She didn't believe that._

_“That doesn't mean someone can't watch over him.”_

_The Doctor shook his head. “We agreed. Not even we were to know where in time we left the hybrid. That was the only way.”_

_“Please,” Rose begged, telling him without words that she wouldn't do this without someone to protect their boy. She almost ran back into the TARDIS to prove it._

_Hands in his pockets, he nodded. “How close are we to Croydon?”_

_Rose frowned, and then she remembered. Sarah Jane Smith. Oh, that was almost perfect, wasn't it? “You left her in Aberdeen, remember?”_

_“So I did. Aberdeen, then._ Allons-y.”

* * *

_“We have to make a stop first,” the Doctor said, not looking at Rose as he prepared the coordinates. He knew she wouldn't like this, and he didn't, either. He didn't like what he knew had to be done, but it wasn't enough to give the child away. If he or Rose remembered what had happened, that they had a child, it would be the end of that child all over again._

_He couldn't allow it._

_“I'll be a few minutes here,” the Doctor said after he'd landed the ship. “You don't need to come with—in fact, best not take him on this trip.”_

_“Fine.”_

_“Fine? You're just... fine with this?”_

_Rose shrugged. “It gives me a bit more time with him, and I won't complain about that. No, not one bit. I just... Do you think he'll be happy?”_

_The Doctor stopped halfway to the doors. “What?”_

_“The baby. Do you think he'll be happy?”_

_“The hybrid?” the Doctor swallowed, trying not to think about it. He knew if Sarah Jane turned them down, he had other former companions he might ask, though many of them had not parted on the best of terms. Still, he could try. He didn't know that many of them would be willing or how the boy would do in their care. Not that he thought they'd hurt him, no, but he knew what he was asking wouldn't be simple for anyone. “Oh. I suppose so.”_

_“You suppose so?”_

_“I mean, yes,” the Doctor said, recovering badly. He shouldn't have gotten so caught up in the past and everything that came with thinking about old companions. “Of course he'll be happy. He's going to have the best life.”_

_Rose threw the child's sock at him. “You're a terrible liar.”_

_He picked it up and pocketed it before heading out of the TARDIS. He crossed the courtyard and pointed his screwdriver, activating the hidden lift and descending down into Torchwood. He hoped that Rose would be distracted enough not to follow him._

_“Doctor!” Jack called out, coming over to hug him. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”_

_The Doctor grimaced. He didn't want to make this request, but he knew he had to. “You have a formula that erases memory, don't you?”_

_“Yes. Why?”_

_“Because I need something to be forgotten.”_

_“Why not just do it yourself?”_

_“It's complicated, Jack. It's... Generally when I make myself forget something, I put a lock on it so that I can remember later, if I need to, but I'm not sure I can ever allow myself to remember what I'm doing now. The risk is too great.”_

_“What are you talking about? What risk?”_

_“The one to my son.”_

_“You have a son? What, with Rose? How—”_

_“I'm not sharing the details of that with you. I just know that—I've seen his timelines. Every one of them ends in his death. And it's my fault. I can't be near that child. Not if I want it to live.”_

_Jack frowned. “What are you going to do?”_

_“I plan to take it somewhere in time—and I can't tell you where that somewhere is—and lose him there. Afterward, Rose and I will forget—so will you, every detail of this conversation—and then maybe there will be a chance.”_

_“That's insane.”_

_“You don't think I know that?” the Doctor demanded. “Of course I do. This whole thing is insane. Our species aren't meant to be compatible that way, and the hybrid is... a bit unhealthy, admittedly. That's only one of the reasons it can't expect to live long, though it's still my fault.”_

_Jack winced. “Are you sure about that the hybrid is in danger?”_

_“What kind of question is that? Of course it is. You have to understand that,” the Doctor said. Being a former Time Agent, Jack understood more than most of the Doctor's companions did. “You are not an idiot. This child should not exist. This child is an aberration. Against the natural order of things. Shouldn't be here. Like a few other people in this world.”_

_Jack ignored the insult. “And you still think that losing it somewhere in the time stream is the best option?”_

_“It's the only option,” the Doctor insisted. He'd seen the timelines. He was sure of it. Either he lost his son now to save him, or he lost the child forever to death in as little as a few days. “It has to work.”_

_“You don't sound sure.”_

_“Do you know what an impossible choice is? Have you made one lately? Seems like I do it daily. Not sure why it's so damned difficult every time, but it always is. I made another. It's done. I won't go back. I can't. This is how it has to be.”_

_“Fine. On one condition—I get to meet this child first.”_

* * *

_“He's incredible,” Jack said, bouncing the baby in his arms as the Doctor sent the TARDIS into the vortex. “I've seen lots of babies in my time, but this one is pretty damned gorgeous. Must be the parents, eh?”_

_Rose rolled her eyes. “Oh, stop it.”_

_“Not sure how you can do this,” Jack admitted, and she grimaced. The Doctor sighed, leaning over the TARDIS, and even the ship seemed to be upset by his words. “It's just... isn't he a bit young to be left on his own?”_

_“We're going to leave him with a friend of the Doctor's,” Rose said. “It's not perfect, but I like her, and I hope maybe we're making her life a bit better by this.”_

_Jack frowned. Rose shook her head as the TARDIS rematerialized. She reached out to take the baby back, holding it close to her, closing her eyes and fighting tears._

_“Rose,” the Doctor began, and Rose looked at him, starting to shake her head. “I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. This is the only way. I've looked at all the timelines. You asked me to, and I did. He won't survive if we don't do this.”_

_“I know,” she said, leaning down to kiss the baby's forehead. “You be good for Sarah Jane. If she takes you in, she is doing us the greatest favor anyone ever could.”_

_“And if she doesn't?” Jack asked._

_“I can ask someone else. Other former companions. I just think Sarah Jane's the right woman for the job. I trust her. She is—was—my best friend,” the Doctor said. He grimaced. “Though... I think I do have to do this alone, Rose. I don't know that we can allow her to know about you. I shouldn't show her me, not this me, but I don't have much choice.”_

_“'S fine. I've... I've said as many goodbyes as I can.”_

_Jack winced, still uncomfortable with this. He watched as Rose passed the baby to the Doctor, and he started for the doors._

_“I am doing this to save him. I shouldn't do it at all. I shouldn't have looked at the timelines or let them influence me, but I... if we do this, his path changes. I can't see how it goes anymore, and that is going to have to be enough.”_

_Rose nodded, and she seemed strong enough until the Doctor walked out with the baby. Then she started sobbing, and Jack pulled her into his arms. He'd known people who gave up children for adoption before, and it had been the right thing to do sometimes, but this—this hurt more than it should have any right to._

_He just kept holding Rose, glad she wasn't alone right now, since it was hard enough on her, losing her child like that. Maybe this saved him, maybe not. Only time would tell, but none of them would know about it by then._

_He looked up, an eternity later, after Rose had sobbed her heart out and given into the exhaustion that came with that sort of grief and tears. The Doctor walked back into the TARDIS, looking about as bad as she did._

_“So you did it.”_

_“I did.”_

_“Any regrets?”_

_The Doctor sighed as he went to the controls, sending the ship into the vortex again. “A lifetime of them.”_

_“You made the only choice you could,” Jack began, though he had his doubts about that. The Doctor nodded. “And it's done now. Can't be changed.”_

_They both knew he could take the TARDIS back right now._

_“Nope.”_

_“Then it's all over.”_

_Another nod, though this one lacked conviction. And then... “It's time, Jack. We all have to forget.”_

_“Are you sure this is what you want?” Jack asked. He had the retcon, he had even dosed it properly for each of them, but he didn't want to do it all the same. Didn't the Doctor's son deserve more than that? He closed his fingers closed over his palm, covering over the pills. The weight was nothing, such an insignificant amount, but any one of them could do so much damage. The power they held was dangerous, and he couldn't help but think it had to be the wrong choice._

_“We've discussed this. It has to be done.”_

_“I know the hybrid has to be kept safe. It's too valuable. It is—”_

_“It's everything,” the Doctor said, voice quiet. The pain was there, raw and real, and Jack ached himself to hear it. He was not sure what to do, since nothing could stop that feeling._

 _Except, of course, what he held in his hand._

_“What happens once we do this? If no one knows—”_

_“Then it will be as it should be.”_

* * *

_Light cannot exist without dark._

_All about the balance, or so it is said._

_At least, that's the excuse evil needs to exist. Because if there is good, then there must be something else, right? And supposedly this was good, a good to set against the dark and the evil. He had a son, he'd somehow managed a hybrid that mean the Time Lords weren't all gone, but that fragile life wasn't safe, not from that same darkness._

_All things equal, everything had a cost._

_They said that happiness could not be bought._

_That did not mean that it did not have a cost._

_Or that someone wouldn't have to pay it._

_He knew that in some ways, it wouldn't feel like they were. If this worked properly, his son would never know that he'd been the cost. He would have a normal life, and as Rose hoped, a happy one. He'd be safe in the past with Sarah Jane._

_Not with the Doctor. No one was ever safe with him. Once again, he'd lost the only family he had, and he'd done it by choice, giving his son away for the frail hope of a better life. He didn't believe this. Why did he have to do this?_

_Not again._

_He shouldn't have to do this again._

_He shouldn't have to lose everything again._

_Yet he did. Over and over again, he paid the cost, and the cost was always high, so much higher than anyone should ever have to pay, but the balance always came due._

_And he paid._

_He wouldn't remember paying in a bit, but that didn't mean he hadn't done it. Rose had done it, though now she had already begun to forget, curled up in her bed and unaware of the pain she'd just suffered._

_He left Jack at Torchwood and returned to the TARDIS. The doors closed, and that was it. The hybrid was gone. Safe, but gone, even in memory._

_That was the best the Doctor could do for it, leaving it behind. He had found a shelter for it, one he knew well, one that would be strong enough to withstand just about anything that could come at it, and that was enough._

_That had to be enough._

_Still, doors closed and alone, he sat down and wept._


	45. Time to Take Leave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone prepares to go their separate ways and end the paradox.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is actually somewhat alarming to me that this is... almost done. It needs a bit more, but it is actually almost wrapped up. For such a long fic that took forever to get here (it seems) it is so strange a feeling to have it be on the cusp of done.
> 
> I am aware there are pieces missing. I also know that I want to handle most of them as separate stories if I can get to them because they're going to be long and difficult.

* * *

_“Seems like it's always time to say goodbye.”_

_“Used to be I thought that was a good thing. Riddance and all that, don't let the door—”_

_“I think I get the gist. Still, with all that, should be easier, shouldn't it?”_

_“What makes you think it's not?”_

* * *

_“You know you don't have to hold him constantly,” the Doctor said from the doorway, but Rose didn't look back at him, unable to turn away from the baby. She couldn't. She'd had another damned nightmare about the Master, about what he'd done to her child, and she couldn't go back to sleep or let the baby go. Not when he was so small and tiny and she hadn't protected him before._

_“You're not the only one to say he's impossible.”_

_The Doctor drew in a breath, and he let it out with a hiss as he came closer to her. “You can't let him get to you, Rose. He's gone.”_

_“Only we remember,” Rose said. “We had to watch as he—”_

_“Shh,” the Doctor said, wrapping his arms around her and holding her tight. She shivered in his arms, not able to get warm or shake the feeling that something else terrible would happen to her son. She knew that the Master was gone, but he wasn't the Doctor's only enemy, and it felt almost like they'd gotten off easy, undoing everything the Master had done like that._

_She knew they hadn't. They still carried the memories, unlike most of Earth, but that didn't make it any better. Now the Master haunted her nights like a bogeyman, waiting to strike from the shadows and get her son._

_“I can't stop remembering it.”_

_“I know.”_

_She looked up at the Doctor. “I swear I didn't know about him when it all started. I wouldn't have risked our baby—”_

_“Don't. I don't blame you.”_

_“Just yourself, then,” she muttered, thinking how typical that was of him. “Did you know?”_

_“I figured out in Utopia from the way you reacted to Jack. I mean, something was off before, but you'd never—you wouldn't think that of him, but you were almost as sick as the TARDIS and I were, and it didn't make sense. I thought...” the Doctor lowered his head. “I didn't expect it to last. It shouldn't have. We're not meant to be compatible that way.”_

_She closed her eyes. “The Master said I'd been altered by something, that I wasn't quite human anymore. You know what that is, don't you?”_

_“The time vortex. I think you must have been a hair off normal to carry it as long as you did without it killing you, but it must have altered you, too. I'm not sure how. I've never looked. I suppose I was afraid to.”_

_Rose brushed back the baby's hair, getting an annoyed look from him. He had his father's eyes, that was for sure. “He said that he—”_

_“Don't,” the Doctor said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Don't think about it.”_

_Rose almost snorted. Like that was possible. All of the Master's threats still rang in her ears, repeating over and over again. She was fortunate. The paradox undid itself, and she'd gotten her son back, the one from the Doctor._

_“He's so small.”_

_“The only one of his kind.”_

_Rose frowned. “In all those years you Time Lords existed, your people never mingled?”_

_“Oh, yes, actually,” the Doctor said. “It was far from common and very much not approved of, but it happened. And some of those instances did... want children. We didn't do that the way humans did, so it was a little bit different, but the Looms died with Gallifrey, and like I said, I never thought full term was an option.”_

_“That's cheery, thanks.”_

_“I'm sorry,” he said. “I know it's not a comfort. I just... It wasn't easy to think about that, trapped as I was. I could only hope he wouldn't find out about it. He did, of course.”_

_She knew the Doctor hurt as much as she did, and somehow she didn't know that they could find their way back from that, not alone or even together, and what were they going to do, this poor child thrown into the mix?_

* * *

“It's called the Year that Never Was for a reason,” Jack said, trying to cover over the awkward silence that had fallen over them. A few members of their party looked to be a bit sick at the thought—really, who wouldn't be?—in particular the ones who were mothers, four of them to the same baby in question. That was a bit complicated there. Still, he was a bit concerned about the girl. The Doctor's granddaughter should not be hearing this. “It never happened.”

“Is that part of why you didn't want me?” Jenny asked, and the Doctor nodded, expression grim. “And now, is it still—”

“You're fully grown. You were trained as a soldier. You'd have a fighting chance. A child wouldn't have, and traveling with me would have been dangerous,” the Doctor said. “It's not that I always go seeking trouble, but I do always seem to find it.”

Jack almost smiled at that, thinking of jeopardy friendly Rose and the little bit of Alec he knew. “I think that's genetic.”

“The hell it is, Harkness.”

“Oh, Alec, sweetheart, I don't disagree,” Sarah Jane said, giving him a slight smile through a pained expression. “When I think of all those times I almost lost you—to aliens or something more human—it frightens me. And I didn't even know that you were so ill when the Doctor gave you to me, but your heart condition—”

“Enough,” Alec cut her off. “No more of that. You'll make Daisy think it was ten times worse than it was. Honestly, there were not that many aliens. I dealt with more of them as—there isn't half as much as you're making it sound now.”

“I'm sure,” Jack told him with a grin, and he knew if Alec had something in reach to throw at him, he would have done it. At least this way they weren't thinking about what the Master could have done to an innocent child.

“I'll be honest,” Daisy said, looking at each Rose in turn. “I don't think I could call either of you Gran. Not just because I have an awesome one or the other one's gone—Mum's mum, I mean—but you're just... not a grandmother.”

The older Rose laughed, while the younger one spluttered a bit, still thrown by the fact that she would, in fact, become Alec's mother. “It's fine. I'm not sure I'd take it as well as the Doctor does 'Gramps.'”

“Oh, now,” the older Doctor said. “About that. You can't just go on—”

“I'm not gonna stop,” Daisy told him. “Ask Dad if you don't believe me.”

“She's stubborn. Should have seen her as a wee thing, fighting against the system that dared say a little girl should wear pink,” Alec said, and Daisy made a face, which he ignored, a hint of amusement in his eyes. “Her mother was not amused. God, she kept that fight up until secondary school, and not just on account of her hair. She actually persuaded five other girls in her year to ban the color as well. All the mothers at that school had it out for Tess, and she, of course, just blamed me.”

“Oh, I like you,” Donna told the girl. “I think you have at place a Vitex when you're older, too.”

“Vitex?” Ellie asked. “That healthy pop thing? What has that got to do with anything?”

“That was Pete's company,” younger Rose said. “My dad. Well, my dad in a parallel world, he made his daft ideas work and he was rich. His company was called Vitex and—Wait, Pete's here? In this world? How did that happen?”

“A long story, and partially thanks to Alec, actually,” older Rose told her. “He wasn't sure he could start all over, but Donna helped—she's brilliant, really—and it worked. Vitex is just as successful here as it was over there, and it's branched out into other things, too.”

“So, wait,” Ellie said, rubbing at her forehead. “Does that make Hardy over there heir to the bloody Vitex fortune?”

“What?” Alec asked, sounding like he might just be more horrified by that than what the Master had done to him in a timeline that no longer existed. “No.”

“Technically, it's all set to go to my brother, Tony,” Rose answered. “It's complicated. I'm Pete's daughter, but I'm not, and I don't need the money—all I want to do is keep traveling with the Doctor. So it's not like I care if Tony gets it all. Still, I have some.”

“Dad, I'm going shopping with Rose,” Daisy announced, and Donna grinned, inviting herself along. Alec just shook his head.

“Maybe you can invite Chloe along,” Ellie said. “She's addicted to that Vitex stuff, and she could probably use a bit of cheering up because even getting Joe locked up for another crime doesn't take away losing Danny.”

“I like Chloe,” Daisy said. “Can I, Dad?”

“Other than the bloody paradox, should be fine.”

Daisy winced, but Rose shook her head. “Now that you know everything, we can come back at a later time and do it. You, me, Donna, and Chloe, if she likes. Even Beth.”

“You remember Beth?” Ellie asked. “What happened to all of you forgetting?”

“It's because of Bad Wolf. I've seen the timelines. I know the Latimers connect to yours and yours connects to Alec's. That... and it sort of all came back to me when I died,” Rose admitted. She held up a hand. “Don't ask. Please, just... don't.”

Jack knew he wasn't the only one who wanted to, even in spite of the pain he could see in Rose at the memory. Still, he knew what it was like to come back from the dead and how haunting that could be, so he decided to intervene. “I'm kind of curious as to how you two managed to make Alec over there—”

“No,” everyone else said at the same time.

* * *

“So... now it's time to end the paradox.”

“Well, there are a few unanswered questions—”

“Jack, for the last time, there will be no explanation of how the Doctor and Rose managed to have a baby. You're more than capable of filling in the blanks,” Ellie said, shaking her head. Donna gave her a smile of approval, making a note that she wanted to come back and spend more time with the woman who seemed to keep the Doctor's son in line.

“There is that bit about it being impossible that everyone seems to love mentioning,” Donna reminded them. She saw a few of them give her a look, and she folded her arms over her chest. “Come on. I heard it at least twice, and that was just here. Apparently we had the same conversation back at the Library before you and I forgot it.”

“The Library?” the Doctor asked, turning to his son. “Oh, so you're the reason it's a bit fuzzy. That's a bit—I was afraid it was River, and that could have been... well, the complications there are pretty obvious.”

“She would have killed herself to save you. I put Jack there instead. It worked out nicely, 'cept he didn't stay dead,” Alec told his father, and half the group looked at him, appalled, while the rest wanted to laugh. “I didn't care for her much. You get involved with her, do it after I'm dead and gone. Else I'm not sure I'll welcome a visit.”

The Doctor nodded. “I'll keep that in mind.”

“See that you do. And don't think you can go around me to Daisy. She's got her own opinions, and while we don't agree on everything, I'm not sure we'd disagree on that one. What is it with you bloody women and getting the idea in your head that us men are ever going to be better than what we are and that you have to make us that to be happy? That's not happy. That's just a bunch of heartache and stupidity for everyone.”

“I'll say,” Daisy muttered, and he looked over at her. “Please, Dad. Like everyone hasn't been asking me for years if you two only married because you knocked her up. The fact that I came along years after you married still surprises _everyone.”_

“Nice.”

“Still true,” she insisted. “And I still don't know what you saw in Mum, so—”

“Don't start,” he said. “I won't have you talking like that about your mother. What she did, while it affected you, that was between me and her. It wasn't about you. And if anyone's got a right to be angry with her, it's me. Not you.”

“Oh, yeah, 'cause I'm just supposed to forget she cheated on you and lost evidence and you almost died with your heart problems,” Daisy muttered. She looked at Donna. “Would you forgive your mum if she'd done that?”

Donna grimaced. Not bloody likely, at least not for years, but then she put up with a lot from her mother and didn't say a word, so maybe she would have. She wasn't sure. “I don't know.”

“I think eventually you'll find a way,” Sarah Jane told her. Daisy stared at her, and the older woman laughed. “I know. I've never really got on with your mother, but I always tried for your father's sake, and even though I don't care for her much, especially after what she did, there are redeeming qualities to her, ones your father loved.”

“Are we done airing all the dirty laundry yet?” Alec demanded. “Bloody hell, why is my marriage even a part of this discussion?”

“Because everyone was avoiding my question,” Donna told him. “The whole impossible thing.”

The Doctor sighed. “Let's just say my people didn't usually... mingle outside our own kind and also add in that it was... not typical to mingle at all, period. We used Looms to create children. Natural reproduction was pretty much impossible, though some scientists worked to reverse it, and there was a nasty rumor going about for a while that I was half human on my mother's side, but I believe that was, in the end, a bit of misdirection.”

“Oh?”

The Doctor shrugged. “Only my eighth self really seemed to believe it, and he was a bit... damaged, even before the war. Nice fellow, liked him, but he wasn't really like my other selves, either. Very much given to emotions and things I didn't do much before him. Shame he was the one to go into the war. At any rate, the human thing fooled the Master and it was a good thing, too, since he intended on stealing my regenerations and it would mean none of us would be here now if he had.”

“Right,” Donna said, aware she wasn't the only one a bit confused but willing to leave that well enough alone for now. “So it didn't work because you're half-human.”

“Nope.”

“It worked because I was altered by the time vortex,” Rose said, and everyone looked at her. She shrugged. “Bad Wolf strikes again. I mean, I knew, sort of, if I was going to give the Doctor a family so he wasn't alone, there had to be a way, and things almost worked with Jenny, but then... they didn't.”

“And you think they worked with me?” Alec asked, snorting and shaking his head.

The Doctor cleared his throat. “Well, then, that's it. Questions answered, everything settled. We're all agreed on the next steps, yes?”

“Wait, so your future selves get to remember all of this, but your past selves... don't?”

The Doctor tensed, sharing a look with his counterpart. “Well... At this point, for me, all of that is in the future, and I would be risking undoing all of it if I didn't. The thing is, though, for Sarah, she's still behind Alec's current timeline, which means her seemingly 'past' self gets to remember, but her 'future' selves doesn't.”

“What?”

“This Sarah Jane is from 2008. That one is from 2015. She gets to remember, has to, even, as Alec is no longer able to forget. He can't by virtue of what I did to save his life,” the Doctor explained. “And Jack... well, he was out of his time to begin with—”

“In a timeline that no longer exists, even,” Jack agreed. “I think I will have to forget as well. My older self can know, but I can't.”

“Doesn't that mean that it's sort of only been months since you abandoned your child in the past and forgot about it, though?”

“Oi, I did not abandon anyone,” the Doctors said at the same time.

Older Rose shook her head. “And it's not months. We're actually ahead of other people because of Alec. We didn't remember that, but it does put us ahead of Donna, Mickey, Martha, Jack, my parents... To answer the question you're about to ask, no. Not once in the entire time before Alec was born did we visit anyone.”

“And we lost you not long after he was, right?” Donna asked, and Rose nodded, shuddering again. “Rose—”

“Please,” Rose said. “That... I don't know how to explain it.”

“Bad Wolf?”

“A bit, yeah.”

* * *

“We're ready, then, right?” the Doctor asked into the silence, clapping his hands together for effect. “Everyone's set for goodbyes and what has to be done for the sake of the timelines. And Donna, you know that if you somehow run into anyone before now—”

“I'm aware, Spaceman. I'm not going to muck it up,” Donna said, rolling her eyes at the Doctor.

Hardy ignored them both, his eyes on the older version of Rose. While he was almost certain he had no actual desire—or need—to know how she'd died and come back from it, that didn't mean that he was done with her. She still knew a hell of a lot more than she was saying, and he was too much of a copper not to notice that.

“Go on with your bloody goodbyes,” he muttered. “Just don't create any more paradoxes while you're at it.”

“Hardy—”

“I need a minute,” he said, stalking to the edge of the group where Rose had put herself as she explained her bit. He took hold of her arm. “And you.”

“Alec—”

“It's fine,” Rose told them. She smiled. “I've been expecting this for a while now, actually.”

He ignored that, pulling her along with him until he could no longer hear the movements of the others, wanting to be well out of his father's earshot when he did this. He didn't need anyone else involved, especially not that overprotective idiot.

“We can climb the whole cliff if you want,” Rose said, and he stopped, turning to look at her. A part of him wanted to shake her silly. He was aware of his hands clenching up into fists, but he did his breathing exercises to calm himself, more or less.

“No, I do not bloody want,” he snapped, stepping close to her, well aware she wasn't intimidated by him. “Tell me the truth. Did you know any of this was going to happen?”

He could have meant anything with that, he supposed, but he figured she could sort that out and answer each and every damn one of them. She had already said she knew about Ailie, called that night a fixed point, and he almost hated her for that alone. He still wasn't over that, had never managed to put it behind him, and now he'd added to the blood that was on his hands with an entire bloody species.

Daleks, so he didn't completely hate himself for it.

Just mostly.

And since Bad Wolf had altered that vortex manipulator, taking him on several unplanned trips that altered timelines, he wanted to know if she knew what he'd do every time that happened.

“No,” Rose answered, and he frowned, folding his arms over his chest. “I swear to you, I didn't. I really didn't. I mean, maybe there was some part of me that... wanted it—”

“All of you wanted it. I'm not good with people, but even I know you're in love with him,” Alec muttered. “Don't try and pretend you're not. I'm not a fool, and I swear I don't care who you are—I'll hurt you if you try and lie to me now.” 

“But it's not like I knew every detail,” she said, shaking her head when he continued to glare at her. “I didn't. I told you that before. And don't think I wanted to hurt anyone. That's not what it was. I didn't set out to—I was trying to save people. You have to understand that.”

He snorted. “Do I?”

“Please. You don't understand.”

“Oh, I understand plenty,” he told her. He knew enough about the past to be sure of her reasons, but that didn't mean he liked them. She was yet another proof of that road to hell and good intentions. “I've been used by time itself, and who else gets to say that? Not many people, I suppose, but that still doesn't make it right. You know it doesn't.”

“And you want an apology?”

“Don't be stupid. That would never be enough.”

“I know,” Rose said, reaching out to put her hand on his arm. “When I was Bad Wolf, a part of me was dying even as it was changing me. I had so much in my head, and I couldn't handle it. Most of what happened—I'm not even sure it was me as much as it was the TARDIS. Without her help, none of it would have happened.”

“And that's an excuse?”

She sighed. “No, and I won't deny that I was willing to have the Doctor's child, would be willing to do it again, but I didn't go altering the timelines for myself. I did it for him and all he could do and would do if he wasn't grieving for me and falling back into darkness. I saw what he became after I was lost to him, and I knew even getting me back wouldn't be enough to fix that—not that he kept me, he foisted the metacrisis off on me and left me behind. He even went and changed a fixed point. He did a lot of damage and all because he can't do this alone. Donna had it right—sometimes he needs someone to stop him. It didn't have to be me, but I'm willing to do it as long as I can.”

“And the other stuff? Why the moon?”

“To spare Martha the pain of pining for the Doctor but make sure she still traveled with him because he wouldn't have taken her, not when he was just biding his time until my mum would stop freaking out and I felt it was safe to leave her.”

“The Library was about River, about stopping her from sacrificing herself for him.”

Rose nodded. “You don't need me to tell you why that was unfair to him. I don't—he can love her if he wants. I just... didn't want him thinking he _had_ to for the timelines. And how fair is it to ask him to let that play out? Even if he'd saved her consciousness to put it in Cal's dreamworld, how did that make up for the heartache? And Donna got Lee, not that she would have made a terrible choice if she hadn't had him, but he had no one, and it's better this way.”

“And you wanted me to reunite Jenny and the Doctor.”

She nodded. “Their paths would never have crossed again if you hadn't gone there. That wasn't right. He shouldn't have suffered his entire life thinking she was gone, too, when she wasn't.” 

Hardy grunted.

“You already know why you were there when the planets were stolen,” Rose said, and he pulled away from her. “If the Doctor had been shot then—”

“Don't. I don't care about that. I would have died for him, and that's—whatever it is, but that's not what matters there, is it?”

“To a few of us, yes, it is,” Rose said. “Donna would either have died or been forced to forget it all, and that wasn't right. She'd lose Lee, herself, Vitex... Everything you changed would be gone. Even if you hadn't changed anything, that wasn't fair to her. She should have been able to choose her path. And he didn't give her that.”

“You're just mad he dumped you with a pale copy.”

Rose laughed. “No. I—there are timelines where that would have made me very happy. This isn't one of them. I don't need a slow path to be happy with the Doctor, and even if I had the house and the kids and marriage in the traditional sense, it wouldn't have been enough for this me. I've changed so much since the Year that Never Was. I even died, but in dying, I got back my memories—all of them—of being Bad Wolf, and that means I know so much now that would never let me settle into one place or time. I can't.”

“That knowledge include me slaughtering the Daleks?”

“No. Yes, I knew there was chance you would, but as you told Dalek Caan, you still had free will. You could make that choice on your own. I know why you did, sparing Jenny what you know too well, and it's just the sort of noble I think my genes cursed you with,” Rose said. She shook her head. “You know I carry that guilt, too. I killed the Emperor. I wiped them out of existence. I did it, same as you. I got peace from it for a time, but I remember now. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.”

“Genocide runs in the family.”

Rose wrapped her arms around him. “It's not always going to feel like this. Trust me.”

“Why the hell should I?”

“I'm your mother?”

In spite of everything, Hardy laughed.


	46. Time for Hugs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone says goodbye and goes their separate ways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is... pretty much it. I have in mind a short sort of epilogue but not thing and then this is officially done. There are side stories to work on (so many it scares me) and the ones that are started will be finished up first, though I've had a few thoughts related to season three that I might do, and I really do want to do a full on Hardy/Miller piece, most likely an AU. 
> 
> Not that I need another AU. *head desk*

* * *

The laughter, however, was short-lived, as usual.

“I should hate you,” Hardy told her, and she winced but didn't argue with him. He knew that he was going to hurt her, but he didn't feel like leaving it unsaid, either. He'd kept his silence in the past, but he wouldn't here, not now. This was too large to be ignored, and it needed to be said no matter what pain it caused. “Everyone should. These choices you think you can make... They're not your right. You don't know better. None of us asked for this.”

Rose frowned. “Would you have asked for something different?”

He snorted. “What kind of a question is that? Of course I would have. And not just for Ailie—can't believe you call that a fixed point. There's a lot of things I'd change if I could, and here I am this bloody freak of nature that has altered too many timelines to think about and I can't do a damned thing about the ones that matter to me. You played god. Don't say you didn't. You did. Who are you to decide for everyone?”

“I'm not.”

“You say you're not, but you are. You've made this choice, and it's your choice, no one else's, no one even gets consulted, and now that it's all done and made, you won't even acknowledge that other people will be affected. Changed. Their lives aren't their own, and they don't even know it.”

She gave him a slight smile as she asked, “I take it you're angry, then?”

He shook his head. “Un-bloody-believable. This isn't something you can joke about, you know. You altered timelines, changed lives, brought me into existence when I shouldn't be here—and we don't even know what damage you've done to the universe by this—and can you actually be sure you made it better?”

“When you looked into the Doctor's mind, did you see the Valeyard?”

Hardy looked away from her. He still hadn't finished sorting out all of the images that he'd gained in that short moment—he'd managed to pick out the ones about the Daleks to couple with his own of his mother's stories and K-9's databanks and pass them along to Donna, but mostly Hardy had been avoiding looking at them. His own pain was enough. He didn't need to carry his father's as well.

“You think he would have become that if Bad Wolf hadn't intervened?”

“It's possible.”

He shook his head. “No. Don't do that. That's not an answer. You can't push me aside with some bloody platitude. Tell me the truth.”

She seemed amused. “Which one?”

“Oh, don't start. None of that Obi-Wan Kenobi crap. This isn't about points of view. This is about you telling me the truth for once in your life. Why did you do it?”

“I can't tell you that,” she said. “At least not in a way you'd believe, since you don't believe me now. I've already answered that question, and I can't change it. I can give you the answer you really want, and no, you won't like it.”

“I haven't liked much of anything my entire life,” he said, giving her a pointed look. “Let's have it, then. The truth.”

“I don't think you actually want it.”

“Maybe not, but there comes a time when there is no avoiding it. It can't be changed, and it still affects you, even if you don't know what it is. That's the trouble with the truth. It's still there, even when you believe the lie. And I don't believe the lie. Not anymore.”

She sighed. “Well, then... The truth is that while we're parting ways and you're going to hand the vortex manipulator back to Jack when he goes, it's not over. You're still the Doctor's son. You still have to live with the decision you made to kill the Daleks at the crucible. And you will still be called on to answer threats. Some of them are the more mundane ones of your choosing, the sort of cases you took on before, and others will be the ones you wanted to avoid.”

“That's just bloody fantastic.”

“It's not so different from anyone else. They have aliens coming into their lives all the time, too. You just have the advantage of knowing what to do with them when they come.”

He shook his head. “That's not enough. It's not like I could do much against the Cybermen, and I was apparently in a bloody coma when the planets were stolen.”

“And yet you still managed to save not only the world but also Owen's life, which changed quite a few things, and that's not all you've done for Torchwood, even if they don't know it yet,” Rose said Then she frowned, lost in thought.

“What do you mean, it's not all I've done for Torchwood? Canary Wharf was it.”

Rose shook her head. “There is a timeline where you didn't have a suspicious death that lead you to Professor Copley just as he was confronting Martha and Owen. In that timeline, Owen died. And then there's that business with Jack's brother. I'm still not sure how he knew to target you, but since he—”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Rose tensed. “Oh. You haven't lived that one yet. I'm sorry. Time is... confusing, and I haven't been around people much, not since... dying. I have all these memories, but it's hard to tell where things are in the timelines or which timeline is which at times.”

“And I'm assuming that's not the only thing I somehow influence in the future. There must be hundreds of them, but you won't say a word. What about the fact that you are my mother? If we hadn't accidentally crossed your path, would you even have told him you were alive?” He asked, folding his arms over his chest. “Or was that just something you figured on neglecting for the rest of your life?”

She frowned. “I had to forget about you. I didn't—we did it to protect you and change your fate. You think I wouldn't have told you if I knew?”

He snorted. “I don't know what you would have done, that's the point.”

“You really don't know me at all, do you?”

“I think it's pretty obvious that I don't.”

“That can change,” she said. “If you're willing.”

* * *

“Ah, there you are,” Jack called out as Alec and Rose returned from their private conversation. That had to be a bit weird, her being his mother and all. The way they kept avoiding how he'd come about made Jack wonder if the whole thing didn't have a bit of “aliens made them do it” or machinery like Jenny over there to it, but no one was willing to share. 

“Daisy's done the rounds with everyone, so the easy goodbyes are almost out of the way already. We're just waiting on you.”

“Bloody hell,” Alec grumbled. “Why do I always get stuck in the middle of things?”

“Because you're you,” Jack's older self said, smiling at him. Jack shrugged, unable to say anything against that. The guy was pretty special, just like his father. “I'll make it quick, though I do hope to see you again soon. Torchwood is working on its relationship with local law enforcement.”

“You're in Cardiff. That's not local.”

Jack's older self ignored him, giving him a hug he shuddered through and then saluting, making everyone laugh at Alec's glare. He stepped into the TARDIS, disappearing from sight.

“And I think I'll have a go now,” Donna said, and Alec tried to dodge her, but Rose pushed him toward her. “I guess I owe you my life, Spaceman Junior. So don't think I won't be paying you back somehow. Oh, and Lee would like to see you. I'm sure of it. So we'll be popping by, don't you doubt that at all.”

“I suppose it doesn't make a bit of difference if I said I won't be here?”

“Nope,” she said with a grin, joining older Jack in the TARDIS.

“And I think I'll go next,” Jenny said. “Daisy's invited me for a sleepover, which I'm looking forward to—”

“What?”

“—so I'll be seeing you soon enough,” Jenny went on. “Dad and Ellie think I can learn a lot from you about investigating, and Dad does his fair share of that, too, so... I'm looking forward to it.”

“Don't hug me,” he said, just before she did. He grunted, and everyone laughed again.

“My turn,” the older Sarah Jane said, forcing a smile. “This shouldn't be so hard, but then... I won't remember when I get back that you're coming out of that coma, and it's been hard on all of us. Especially Daisy.”

Daisy grimaced. “Don't, Gran. Do not tell him—”

“She cries every day.”

Alec winced, and Jack figured he would have reached for his daughter if his mother wasn't holding onto him. “I didn't know Copley would be a megalomaniac who only cared about his bloody experiment. I just wanted to ask about a possible connection, and next thing I knew, I was shot. I barely even remember that part.”

“I don't remember it being part of your official record,” Ellie told him. He turned to her with a frown. “You know Karen White published your history on the force in that article that labeled you the Worst Cop in Britain. Would have thought you being shot for being in the wrong place at the wrong time—”

“Right place at the right time,” Older Rose corrected.

“—would have gotten in that article, just to humiliate you more.”

“Doesn't matter,” Alec said. “Though if I never deal with her again, it'll be too soon. Same goes for your arsehole of a nephew.”

“I can't believe that's the note I'll be leaving on,” Sarah Jane muttered, but she smiled as she reached up to touch her son's cheek. He dutifully bent and kissed her temple. “Though I suspect I'll see you soon enough.”

“I think I just decided I was sleeping through that crisis, planet be damned,” he told her, and she laughed as she walked back into the TARDIS with Jenny.

Older Rose gave him a look. “We're so not at the hugging stage, are we?”

He snorted. “No, we bloody well are not.”

She did it anyway, whispering in his ear, and he stiffened but didn't say anything as she turned to go, leaving him with only one of the older counterparts to go. The Doctor.

“This is... easier, knowing that I will be able to see you again. Possibly not with this face, though I like it, so it would be a shame if that were true.”

“You're so bloody vain,” Alec muttered. “And no singing, Miller.”

“What?”

“I've heard you,” Alec told her. “Hours in the car, and you thinking my silence means you should fill it with under your breath off-key singing. Bloody torture.”

She rolled her eyes. “Knob.”

“I think I've been upstaged,” the Doctor muttered, shaking his head. “Suppose it's fine. I've got a lot to do yet. And family. I've got family to deal with. I'll have my hands full for a bit, and not just because something keeps preventing us from going to visit Lee like Donna wants. So... Off, I suppose. You... you are coming with, right, Rose?”

She nodded, going over to take his hand. “Forever, remember?”

He smiled back at her, and they both waved as they went into the TARDIS. Jack knew that the other goodbyes would be harder. This Doctor and Rose, they were both going to forget. That had to be hard for both of them, strange as it was for Rose to be a mother to man who was older than she was—and a grandmother to boot.

“I guess it's my turn now,” Jack said, turning back to Alec after the TARDIS had gone. “Seems like it's always time to say goodbye.”

Alec glanced toward the Doctor, shrugging. “Used to be I thought that was a good thing. Riddance and all that, don't let the door—”

“I think I get the gist,” Jack told him, smiling. “Still, with all that, should be easier, shouldn't it?”

“What makes you think it's not?” Alec countered. “You're not—”

“You may not think it means much, but the Doctor has my loyalty. And so do you.”

Wordlessly, Alec passed him back the vortex manipulator.

* * *

“Rose ran off a bit quick,” the Doctor said, frowning at the closed doors of the TARDIS. He hadn't expected that. He'd thought she'd have the harder time saying goodbye. She was human, after all, and humans were more prone to attachment than say a Time Lord.

At least this time the goodbyes were more private. Sarah Jane and Ellie had talked Daisy away from them, giving Rose and the Doctor each a chance to be alone with their son before they left. Rose had been awkward, but she'd still teared up a bit before hugging him and running. 

Alec snorted. “Even her older self seemed to have trouble coping with the fact that she's my mother. And that's just too bloody weird to think about. I have a mother. I don't need another one.”

“You said the same thing about me.”

“I know.”

The Doctor studied him, frowning. “Do you... blame Rose? I suppose, as Bad Wolf, she must seem responsible for all this, but it's not—well, there are things in your past that I'd change to spare you, and I would do—I would have wanted to be there. I don't think I could have, not from what I know of the situation—I don't know, since that's still ahead of me, but if I had to watch the Master torture you as a baby and then had a chance to do it over—well, I'd be terrified, but I'd still be desperate for it, desperate enough to defy your timelines and break them, putting you in the past so that you'd have a chance. I gave everything I had.”

“I know.”

“I did what I thought was best.”

“I know that, too.”

“It wasn't enough, was it?” the Doctor asked, grimacing. “It's not like it spared you everything. It made things worse in some ways. I... I look at that night, and I want to go defy the laws of time itself and change it. I hate this.”

“Would you still have done it if you knew?” Alec asked, and the Doctor frowned at him.

“Knew what?” The Doctor thought he'd already answered that. He was going to forget, for the sake of the timelines, but he'd already told his son that he would still see him born, even if he knew he shouldn't for all the reasons they'd already been over too many times.

“That you could change everything?”

“There are fixed points in time. Certain things have to happen. I've told you this before.”

“Even this?” Alec shook his head. “You know I'm not a fixed point. There were other timelines. Dozens of them, and none of them led to me.”

“Yes, even this,” the Doctor insisted. “I wouldn't have it any other way. I swear it. I don't—this is so hard. Harder than it should be. I'm losing you and Daisy, and I can hardly stand it. I shouldn't care this much, but it's tearing at my hearts—”

“Do you think it was worth it?”

“Yes.”

“That was fast. No hesitation, no regrets? You're sure?” Alec frowned, as if he himself wasn't. The Doctor supposed he should have doubts and regrets, and he did, as he'd said, but not about having this son. Or even that daughter, though he wasn't as attached to her yet as his counterpart was.

“You know it was. Every little bit of it was, but then again, I wasn't the one that paid the price.”

Alec nodded, seeming a bit unconvinced. The Doctor pulled him into yet another unwilling hug, holding tight.

“Remind me when I'm older to help you balance your shields a bit more.”

“Oh, shut it. You're not going to blame your soppiness on me.”

The Doctor laughed. “No, I won't. Still... I don't know that anything else can be said that hasn't been, and I can't see any good reason to delay this for much longer. The more I do, the more at risk the timelines are.”

“Can't have that.”

“No, we can't. That's it, then. That is everything. It's done, over, finished. Kaput.” 

He almost laughed at his son's expression at that word choice. 

“Nothing lasts forever. Everything ends.”

“Yes, but this is a choice,” Alec reminded him. “This end is a choice, and you know that it doesn't have to happen.”

“And you know that it does,” the Doctor said softly. “Though... I will miss you. And Daisy. I think I'll miss her more, not gonna lie.”

Alec laughed. “Don't blame you for that.”

“I wish I had more time with her, too,” the Doctor said. “Oh, I'll see her grow into her potential—off the charts right now—but I never got to see her small and tiny. At least I'll have some memory of that with you and—”

“Here,” Alec said, taking out a paper and scribbling on it. He handed it to the Doctor.

“What's this?”

“A date.”

“Very funny. I can see that much for myself. Why does it matter?”

Alec smiled. “It's a night I still remember well. Daisy'd threatened never to speak to me again if I wasn't home in time to tuck her in and read her a bedtime story. She was big into Thomas the Tank Engine at the time, and she loved hearing me do the voices. She wouldn't let Tess read to her. Not one night.”

“And?”

“My case went wrong, I was at the station and later the hospital all night. I didn't make it back. Daisy said I did, but I know I didn't. Tess said she probably dreamed it, but with the bond Daisy and I share—”

“Makes sense,” the Doctor said, curling his fingers around the paper. “And thank you.”

“Just don't hug me again.”

* * *

“Families are tricky things,” Ellie said, walking back up to Hardy's side as the TARDIS disappeared. She looked back at the other two women, not sure why his mother and daughter weren't going to him, either to comfort him or be comforted by him, but somehow Ellie seemed to have been elected to this thankless task. Again.

“That has to be the worst understatement you've ever made.”

“Oh, like yours is perfect,” she muttered, not needing the reminder about Joe. She still had another potential trial to face, though she hoped with Keith's death Joe would just plead this time instead of thinking he'd get away with it.

Then again, she supposed she was also worried that Joe would go spreading word that Hardy was half-alien. While it would get him declared incompetent, she didn't think anyone should know about the whole alien bit.

“How do you feel?”

Hardy turned to her, his frown almost angry. “Why do you keep asking me that? What's with the feelings and the sudden need to share them?”

“You don't have to get defensive,” she muttered, irritated and tempted to go back and tell Sarah she could deal with her arse of a son. “It's only a question.”

“It's never just a question.”

She grimaced. He had a point there. “Is this more than your father leaving? It's not like you won't see him again. Him and Rose. What did you say to her, anyway?”

“Not your concern, Miller.”

“Don't be a wanker.”

He shook his head. “I'm fine. You can tell them back there that, too.”

“I'm not lying for you,” she said. “I can tell you're not fine. And I don't think it's about your father, either. You've been off since you got back with that second set of them, and I guess I thought that was the whole paradox and the conversation, too, but it's more than that, isn't it?”

He glared at her. “Go away.”

“Not bloody likely, so tell me before I annoy you to death with questions like usual.”

He rolled his eyes. “Fine. Remind me to find you a gag.”

“Excuse me?” Ellie shook his head. “Don't make me hit you. Or piss in a cup and throw it at you. I swear, you make difficult people seem downright easy. You tried burying things before, remember? It almost killed you. That and your pride.”

“I hate you.”

“I hate you, too,” she said, but she put a hand on his arm. “Just tell me. Or admit you're missing your father and a soppy mess, and I'll drop it.”

“Not soppy.”

She snorted. “You think I believe that?”

“It's nothing,” he said, and she gave him a look. “It is. All I did was—I made... a choice. We all make them. Hundreds of them every day. It's what we do.”

“You must have been wrong,” she said, knowing it would only bother him this much if he thought he'd taken the wrong path.

“It was the only choice to make.”

“Except you went and made it without me.”

“Because you would have made the wrong one,” he snapped, and she looked at him, wondering why he hadn't argued that she hadn't even been there. Still, she kind of thought she would have stopped him from whatever stupidity he was up to this time. She certainly wasn't following him around like any kind of dog—tin or otherwise.

“You don't know that it would have been the wrong choice.”

“Yes, I do. You see things as right or wrong, and I know that it's never that simple. This had to be done. I did it. I took it upon myself to make sure it was. You can hate me if you like.”

She frowned. “I don't even know what you did. I suppose I have other reasons to hate you, and most of the time I think I do, but I can't hate you for this, whatever it is, because I don't know what you did. So unless you feel like telling me—”

“I wiped an entire alien race out of existence.”

She stared at him. “Oh.”

He turned away. “Going for a walk.”

“No, you're not. You don't get to run away. It's not that simple. You said it was the only choice to make, and you're not someone who goes about committing murder willy-nilly, or I think Lee Ashworth and a few others would never have made it to trial. What happened?”

“Daleks. They stole the Earth and—how do you not know about that? I was in a bloody coma, and that explains me, but you—”

“Could have been when I was heavily medicated after a miscarriage,” she said, and he looked at her. She didn't elaborate. Couldn't. She just wanted to leave that behind in the drugged haze she was in before she thought about how seemingly great Joe had been for her back then. “So... you saved the world by killing someone. How am I supposed to hate you for that? I still catch myself thinking I shouldn't have stopped in that interrogation room, should just have killed Joe.”

Hardy grunted.

She nudged him with her elbow. “Fine, if it makes you feel any better, I'll say I'll hate you for the rest of my life, but I won't remember, will I?”

He frowned. “What?”

“Well, you can make me forget same as the Doctor, and I figured you would. I can't see you wanting me, Tom, Beth, Mark, and Chloe all knowing what you are. Fred doesn't understand, he's not old enough, but the rest of us, we need to be stopped.”

He shook his head. “I can't do that. And I wouldn't. Not that I like having to trust your silence, but I'm not a bloody monster. Not going to steal memories on top of everything else. Damn it. This just gets worse. It's almost funny. People say complicated. They don't know the half of it.”

“You say that like it's a bad thing.”

“Exactly what about any of this was good?”

“You got a better father out of it than the wanker you had,” Ellie told him. “You now have another mother and you're apparently rich—”

“I am not.”

“Still, he did say you would have died if he hadn't come, and I don't think he was lying about that. You're closer to Daisy than ever, you've repaired your relationship with your mother, and I saw the Doctor slip something into your pocket, too.”

Hardy reached in to pull out that screwdriver his father was always using, holding it up with disbelief all over his face. “Interesting.”

Uncomfortable in the silence that followed his discovery, she shifted her feet, trying to find something to do or say, and in the end, out came the wrong words. “Where does this leave us?”

She couldn't be sure what was in his expression this time. “Honestly, I've no idea.”

“Sure you don't.” 

“You expect me to have all the answers,” he almost snapped. “I don't. I don't know what to do, where to go from here. None of this was supposed to happen.”

“I swear if you—” Ellie cut herself off as Daisy came up to her father, apparently having had enough of waiting back with her grandmother.

“So this is how it ends, then,” Daisy said, looking at where the TARDIS had been and back at her father. He struggled for a moment to find a response and failed miserably.

“Apparently.”

She stared at him, not the only one to do so. “This is really it, all there is, and it's just done? How can it possibly end like this? Now, here, with everything so wrong?”

“That's time for you. Everything becomes such a mess,” he said. He pulled his daughter close to him. “He'll be back, eventually. I hear he always turns up when he's needed.”

“Who's to say we don't need him now?” Daisy demanded. She frowned. “I sound like a bratty little kid. It's just... I never got to know the grandfather you hated, but I like that one.”

“It'll get better,” Sarah Jane told her. “It was hard for me, at first, when the Doctor left me behind, and not just because it was in Aberdeen and not Croydon.”

“Why're you standing so far away?” Ellie asked. “I thought he already told you he forgave you. You're not... Oh. I suppose it must be hard, now that you know for sure who his mum is.”

Sarah Jane nodded. “This is not how I imagined it.”

Ellie thought of her once perfect life and tried not to wince. “Nothing ever is.”

“No, sometimes the truth is,” he said. “It is just what you expect, even when you know it's not what you want.”

Sarah Jane watched him, concern and a bit of fear visible in her eyes. “Is that how you feel about this truth?”

“Honestly, I don't know,” he admitted, but he held out a hand to her. “I know it doesn't change who you've always been to me, even if everything else is... different.”

“And you'll be okay, right, Dad?” Daisy asked. “Because I know you're more than tired.”

“I'm fine,” Hardy told her, and Ellie knew he was lying, but for now, she didn't push. She knew it was a shitty platitude, but it was also ironic as hell—he needed time. They all did.

* * *

_One person._

_It was all about one person._

_The trouble was, they all misunderstood just which of those one people it was._


	47. Time for a Hint of More

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is a gathering at the Latimer house. Hardy is not pleased to be there, or to be the main topic of conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I called this an epilogue, and it's... um, not?
> 
> Still, I can't help thinking it's better if it ends with the idea of it continuing...

* * *

“Almost a shame we don't have that ship of your father's about now,” Mark commented as he passed Hardy a plate full of food. Hardy stared at it, the automatic protest of can't eat that dying in his throat as he remembered he no longer had any dietary restrictions—well, besides pears, but he wasn't sure if that was an actual allergy or just one of his father's eccentricities.

He took the plate and set it in front of him, still not sure he wanted to eat anything from it. Who was to say Nige Carter didn't hold a grudge and he should eat any of this?

“It would make traveling down to Joe's trial easier and less expensive,” Beth said, sticking an obnoxiously bright drink in front of him. Bloody hell. Was that pink lemonade? Why?

“I still say you're welcome in my mum's place,” Mark added. “We all owe you for making sure he got justice, though... you could have just chucked him out into space.”

The sensation of flipping a switch and wiping out an entire alien race flashed through his head, and Hardy didn't answer, no longer having any sort of appetite or desire to continue this conversation. He didn't know why he'd come in the first place, other than Miller's threats and Daisy's pleading. Add in his mother's fretting, and he was done, but letting them win was an obvious mistake. He was still no more social than before, and he had to get out of here.

“Nige is about to bring out the roast,” Miller said. “No more alien talk for a bit.”

Beth glanced toward the door to the house, grimacing. “I know he wants to help, and I feel a bit bad for excluding him—”

“We can't go telling anyone else about Hardy's father,” Miller said, firm. “I'm not even sure we should know.”

He looked at her. “You, of the incurable questions, you think you'd be fine with not knowing every bloody thing?”

“Language,” Beth said, taking Lizzie from Chloe and sitting down with her.

“I don't know,” Miller admitted. “Sometimes I think I'd like to go back to before I knew. I mean, now someone has to watch out for you because you're some kind of... alien rarity and always in trouble because of it, not just because you have a heart condition.”

“My hearts are just fine,” he snapped, giving her a glare before turning to Daisy. “They're fine. I haven't had any issues since the Doctor fixed that.”

“'Cept you don't sleep like at all anymore,” she said, frowning. “Not that you slept much before, but now... I don't think you've slept since Gramps left.”

His mother frowned at him. “Alec, is that true?”

“Oh, go bother Luke,” Hardy told her, and she started to argue with him again when the wind picked up, causing half the table to scramble to hold down the provisions on the table. Hardy ignored it, walking over to the doors just as the TARDIS finished appearing in front of him.

“Ah, brilliant,” the Doctor said, bouncing out of the doors. “Right where we need to be. Well, more or less. At least, you're here, so that solves step one. And maybe six through eleven, not sure just yet. Have to do a bit more calculating on that. Very complex mathematics. Always a bit of a chore when one would rather be admiring the view.”

“You better not be talking about Rose again, Spaceman,” Donna said, shaking her head. “Hello, dumbo. Emergency? One you said only your son would be able to help you fix since you managed to get Jenny stuck in a bloody time loop—”

“Oi, that was not my fault,” the Doctor protested. “First rule—and everyone ignores this—don't wander off. That's what I said, what I always say, and everyone always ignores it and blames me when they get captured and caught in time loops. I swear, it happens every time. Sometimes it seems like traveling without a companion would be better than this.”

“Or you could become the Valeyard.”

The Doctor grimaced. “Excellent point. Best avoid that. So... I need another Time Lord to break this loop and undo a few paradoxes along the way. Don't suppose you're available for that?”

Hardy glanced back at the table, at the crowd still expecting him to socialize and turned to his father. “One condition.”

“Oh?”

“You make sure we're late getting back.”

The Doctor laughed.

* * *

A few minutes later, Nige Carter walked out of the house, proudly carrying his latest culinary creation. He walked around to where he and Mark had set up the table outside.

“I've got the roast,” he announced. “And you're in for a treat now, trust me.”

He set it down on the table, and then he looked around in confusion. “Where'd everybody go?”


End file.
